HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.
Vol XXXV.
PHILADELPHI A» PUBLICATION FUND OF
THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF PENNSYLVANIA
No. 1300 LOCUST STREET. 1911.
i
CONTENTS OF VOLUME XXXV.
MM
Banquet given by the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, to Cele- brate the Ninety-fifth Anniversary of the Birth of Major General George Gordon Meade, December 31, 1910. (Portrait.) I Joseph Richardson's Road. A Bit of Color from the Forgotten Past.
By Han. Samuel W. Pennypacker. 41
The First Balloon Hoax. By Joseph Jackson. (Illustrated.) . . 51 Orderly Book of Gen. John Peter Gabriel Muhlenberg, March 26-
December 20, 1777. (Concluded.) .... 59, 156, 290 Letters of a French Officer, Written at Easton, Penna., in 1777-1778. 90 Extracts from the Journal of Surgeon Ebenezer Elmer of the New Jersey Continental Line, September 11-19, 1777. By John
Nixon Brooks 103
Three Interesting Letters 108
Notes and Queries 112,244,365,512
Book Notices 122,256,383
Presentation of Portrait of the late Henry Charles Lea, Vice-Presi-
dent of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. (Portrait.) . 129 Slavery in Colonial Pennsylvania. By Edward Raymond Turner. . 141 The West Collection of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. . 152 Records of St. Paul's Evangelical Lutheran Congregation, Lehigh
County, Penna., 1750-1764. By Clarence E. Beckel. . . .188 William Penn's Account with Samuel Jennings, Receiver-General,
1690-1693 199
Town Dockets of Chesterfield Township, Burlington County, New Jersey, December 15, 1692, to December 2, 1712. By Dr. Carlos
E.Godfrey 211
" The Swedish Settlements on the Delaware, 1638-1664," by Amandus
Johnson, Ph.D. By G. B. Keen, LL.D. (Portrait.) . . .223
iv Contents of Volume XXXV.
PAGE
Beginnings of the Iron Industry in Trenton, N. J. By William
Nelson, Esq 228
Anthony Wayne, Presentation of His Portrait to the Historical
Society of Pennsylvania on behalf of Mrs. Joseph W. Drexel,
May 9, 1910. By Charles Henry Hart. (Portrait.) . . .257 Letters of James Logan to Thomas Penn and Richard Peters. . . 264 Extracts from the Diary of Joseph Heatly Dulles. By Charles W.
Dulles, M.D. . . 276
Letters of Two Distinguished Pennsylvania Officers of the
Revolution 304
Who Was the Mother of Franklin's Son. An Inquiry Demonstrating
that She Was Deborah Read, Wife of Benjamin Franklin. By
Charles Henry Hart 308
A Philadelphia Schoolmaster of the Eighteenth Century. By Joseph
Jackson. (Portrait.) 315
Orderly Book of the Second Pennsylvania Continental Line, Colonel
Henry Bicker. At Valley Forge, March 29-May 27, 1778. By
John W. Jordan. (Continued.) 333, 463
Selections from the Diary of Christiana Leach, of Kingsessing, 1765-
1796. By Robert H. Hinckley 343
Isaac Wilson, Head-Master. By Charles H. Browning. ... 350 Tombstone Inscriptions in the Baptist Graveyard at Cape May
Court House, N.J. By Mrs. Emma Steelman Adams. (Continued.)
356, 506 Laurel Hill and Some Colonial Dames Who Once Lived There. By
Wittiam Brooke Rawle, Esq. (Illustrated.) 385
Letters from William Franklin to William Strahan. By Charles
Henry Hart. (Portrait.) 415
Five Letters from the Logan Papers in the Historical Society of
Pennsylvania. By Miss J. C. Wylie .497
Officers of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania 513
517
MAJOR GENERAL GEORGE GORDON MEADE
THE
PENNSYLVANIA MAGAZINE
OF
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.
VOL. XXXV. 1911. No. 1
BANQUET GIVEN BY THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF PENNSYLVANIA, TO CELEBEATE THE NINETY- FIFTH ANNIVERSARY OF THE BIRTH OF MAJOR GENERAL GEORGE GORDON MEADE, DECEMBER 31, 1910.
THE ninety-fifth anniversary of the birth of Major General George Gordon Meade, Commander of the Army of the Potomac from June 28, 1863, until the disbandment of that army after the surrender at Appomattox, was chosen as a fitting time to bring to the attention of a too-forgetful people, the genius and great services of the victor ol Gettysburg. The movement originating with former Gov- ernor Samuel W. Pennypacker, President of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, found a quick response from the members of the Society, and a committee composed of Hon. Charlemagne Tower, Hon. Samuel "W. Pennypacker, Col. William Brooke Rawle and Col. John P. Nicholson, was appointed to make suitable arrangements for a banquet. On Saturday evening, December 31, 1910, military and naval oflicers, statesmen, diplomats, judges, barristers of national reputation, authors, journalists and captains of industry, who met in the Hall of the Historical Society of Pennsyl- vania, made up an assemblage seldom seen even in this city of distinguished gatherings. Three Lieutenant Generals — VOL. xxxv. — 1
2 General Meade Anniversary Banquet.
Miles, Bates and Young — and an Admiral of the Navy, Melville — made a unique setting for the occasion. In the main Reading Room were displayed a portrait of the father of General Meade, and three jewelled swords presented by the city of Philadelphia, the citizens of Philadelphia at the Great Sanitary Fair in 1864, and by his soldiers on the Rappahannock, respectively. The Assembly Room, in which the banquet was served, was decorated simply but impressively with the National and State Standards. Back of the guests' table hung a life size portrait of Meade, painted at Head Quarters Army of the Potomac, in the Field dur- ing the winter of 1863-4, by Thomas Hicks, draped by a large American flag, and flanking it, his tattered headquarters and Fifth Corps flags.
Descendants of General Meade who shared in the honors of the evening, occupied seats in the balcony to listen to the speeches. They were : — Mrs. George Meade, Miss Henrietta Meade, Mrs. John B. Large, Miss Florence Meade, Mr. Saunders L. Meade, Miss Salvadora Meade, Mr. and Mrs. George J. Cooke, Mr. and Mrs. H. H. Francine, Mr. Ser- geant Large, Miss Henrietta Large, Mr. and Mrs. John B. Large, Jr., Mrs. G. G. M. Large, and Mrs. Robert H. Large.
The following guests of honor, members of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, and veterans of the Army of the Potomac, participated in the celebration : —
Nelson A. Milea, Lieut. Gen. U. S. A. (retired) ;
8. M. B. Young, Lieut. Gen. U. 8. A. (retired) ;
John C. Bates, Lieut. Gen. U. 8. A. (retired) ;
George W. Melville, Rear Admiral, U. 8. N. (retired) ;
Hon. Samuel W. Pennypacker ;
Hon. Hampton L. Carson ;
Col. William Brooke Rawle ;
Col. John P. Nicholson ;
Charles Leonard Moore ;
L. W. Moore, Commander Depart. Penna. , G. A. R. ;
J. D. Fenimore, Commander Meade Post, G. A. R.;
George Gordon Meade ;
George G. Meade Large ;
Robert H. Large ;
General Meade Anniversary Banquet.
George W. Ochs, Public Ledger ; Dr. A. C. Lambdin, Public Ledger ; Samuel C. Wells, The Press; John P. Dwyer, Record; William A. Connor, Associated Press.
Edwin J. S. Adams,
Thomas Willing Balch,
William J. Barr,
Hon. Norris S. Barratt,
Gen. Robert B. Beath,
Hon. Dimner Beeber,
T. Brown Belfield,
Col. K. Dale Benson,
L. S. Bent,
Major Sylvester Bonnaffon, Jr.,
Gen. Wendell Phillips Bowman,
Peter Boyd,
Alexander P. Brown,
Jno. Cook Brown,
M. G. Brumbaugh,
John Cadwalader,
Eichard McCall Cadwalader,
George W. Carpenter,
Gen. L. H. Carpenter,
Allen Childs,
B. Frank Clapp,
James Clarency,
William M. Coates,
Frederick W. Conaway,
John F. Couaway,
J. Cardeen Cooper, M.D.,
D. E. Dallam,
William Drayton,
Henry Sturgis Drinker,
Frank Brooke Evans,
Clarence T. Fades,
Gen. B. F. Fisher,
George Harrison Fisher,
Stanley G. Flagg, Jr.,
J. Roberts Foulke,
W. R. Gaulbert,
George S. Graham,
John T. Lewis, Jr.,
Hugh McCaffrey,
Clayton McElroy,
William MacLean, Jr.,
Hon. J. Willis Martin,
Capt. S. Emlen Meigs,
Charles K. Mills, M.D.,
W. M. Mintzer,
Thos. M. Montgomery,
John T. Morris,
M. Richards Muckle,
S. Davis Page,
Harold Pierce,
E. E. Pennock,
Isaac A. Pennypacker,
James L. Pennypacker,
Joseph W. Pennypacker,
Horace Pettit,
John R. Read,
Joseph G. Rittenhouse, Jr.
W. J. Roe,
Major J. G. Rosengarten,
Henry W. Rupp,
Edward S. Sayres,
D. Nicholas Schaffer,
C. Morton Smith,
Ernest Spofford,
George Stevenson,
George R. Stull,
Hon. Mayer Sulzberger,
H. G. H. Tarr,
Edmund C. Taylor,
Gen. John P. Taylor,
Joseph Thompson,
Nicholas Thouron,
Hon. Charlemagne Tower,
Geoffrey Tower,
4 General Meade Anniversary Banquet.
Major John C. Groome, John W. Townaend,
Thos. Skelton Harrison, T. Chester Walbridge,
Charles Henry Hart, John G. Watmough,
W. J. Heller, W. H. Wetherill,
Charles E. Hires, Col. Theo. E. Wiedersheim,
James Hogan, Francis H. Williams,
Samuel Hafty, George Willing,
Gregory B. Keen, Hon. W. W. Wiltbank,
John R. Kendrick, William D. Winsor,
Major William H. Lambert, Charlemagne Tower Wolfe,
Col. E. A. Landell, Leon B. Wolfe,
A. Layman, M.D., Edward Randolph Wood,
Col. J. Granville Leach, Howard Wood,
David P. Leas, J. A. Wood, Stuart Wood.
President Pennypacker presided at the banquet, and at the plate of each guest, in addition to the menu, was an excellent card photograph of General Meade (see frontis- piece), presented by Mr. Frederick Gutekunst, an active member of the Society for half a century. When Coffee and Cigars were reached the attention of the banqueters was asked, and the President in -his introductory remarks said :
ADDRESS OF HON. SAMUEL W. PENNYPACKER.
Ladies and Gentlemen : — The object of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, is not alone to collect and preserve the materials which throw light upon the history of the Country. It is, beside, so to utilize them that the im- portant part borne by this State in the origin and develop- ment of the Nation may be proven, and may make its proper impress upon those given to research, and in time upon the people everywhere.
The most important public service is often forgotten by the neglectful and perverted by the unfaithful. There is as much need to preserve reputations as there is to protect bank accounts. We meet to-night to do honor to a most distinguished soldier of the War of the Rebellion, and to indicate our appreciation of his preeminent achievement. It
General Meade Anniversary Banquet. 5
may well be that some other captain, Grant, or Rosencrans, or Sherman, or Thomas, had the skill and the capacity to command with success upon a battlefield as important as Gettysburg, but upon no one of them did fate impose such a task, or bestow such a reward. The result of that battle settled the issues of the War. It did much more. To-day two diverse peoples, one in the East and one in the West, stretch hands and blow kisses across the Pacific Ocean, wait- ing intent to see which in the end will be the Master of its waves. America is able to dig her canal and to keep watch and ward for the Aryan race, because a half century ago the most momentous battle of modern times was won upon a Pennsylvania field by a Philadelphia soldier, George Gordon Meade.
It is not for me, as the presiding officer of this dinner, to tell about his services. We have here to-night one of the vice-presidents of this society, a learned lawyer who has been the Attorney-General of the Commonwealth, a bril- liant writer who has told us the story of the Supreme Court of the United States, an eloquent orator at once persuasive and impressive. I have the great pleasure to present to you the Hon. Hampton L. Carson.
ADDRESS OF HON. HAMPTON L. CARSON.
Mr. President, Fellow-members of the Historical Society, Dis- tinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen : — We have met to celebrate the 95th Anniversary of the birthday of George Gordon Meade, one of our great commanders, a son of Pennsylvania, who, on Pennsylvania soil, performed a ser- vice to State and Nation of which the benefits will last as long as the flag of the Republic floats; a general who fought a battle and won a victory, of which history will declare that a contrary event would have essentially varied the drama of the world in all its subsequent scenes. Of him it may be said, as Voltaire said of Marlborough, that "he had in high degree that calm courage in the midst of tu-
6 General Meade Anniversary Banquet.
mult, that serenity of soul in danger, which the English call a cool head, a quality which gave to the English the glories of Creasy, of Poictiers and Agincourt."
He had dash and fire as a division commander, coolness as the commander of a corps, thus displaying courage with- out rashness and caution without timidity, qualities which Jugurtha was said to have possessed as described by the historian Sallust. He was skilled in logistics, the art of moving large bodies of men, as well as in strategy and tac- tics, in which Turenne and Napoleon so greatly excelled. Thus he united in a marked degree some of the most strik- ing characteristics of the four great commanders I have named.
In my boyish recollections General Meade stands out as a very distinct personality. I often saw him on horseback as he was riding in the park, or on the streets of Philadel- phia, or occasionally in a drawing room. I went to school with his youngest son. My father and mother were intimate with General Meade and Mrs. Meade, and it happened that my uncle General A. A. Humphreys commanded a division at Gettysburg, and afterwards was Meade's Chief of Staff. To this accidental relationship of mine to one closely con- nected with him I find an explanation of the action of the committee in selecting me, entirely without military knowledge or experience, to address a body of gentlemen, some of whom not only fought under him but were also participants in his great fight. I have envied, as few boys except those of my own generation can envy, the men ten years older than myself. As I cast my eyes along this glit- tering line and see men here who beneath the inspiration of those glorious stripes and under those inextinguishable stars, fought on those hills and rocky slopes in order that this Union might live, I feel that it is a degree of immortality for them in advance to have participated as soldiers under his command.
General Meade was born on the 31st of December, 1815, in the town of Cadiz, Spain, where his father, a citizen of
General Meade Anniversary Banquet. 7
Pennsylvania, was a merchant and also represented the gov- ernment of the United States as a naval agent. On his father's side he was of Irish descent and on his mother's of English. There was not the slightest trace of military inheritance in his blood. He came of a race of merchants, and for three generations back those merchants had been conspicuous in the life and business of Philadelphia. His great-grandfather was here in Philadelphia as early as 1732. His grandfather was one of the merchants who signed the non-importation resolutions in 1765, and subsequently, in 1780, contributed the then very large sum of £2,000 for the relief of the suffering soldiers of George Washington. General Meade's great-aunt married Thomas Fitzsimmons, then a young merchant of Philadelphia, but who is known to fame as one of the signers of the Constitution of the United States, and who as a member of the first Congress of the United States under the Constitution, became con- spicuous in advocating our first tariff law. General Meade's father was a merchant who as early as 1803 went to Spain, and there lived during an interesting series of years, that brought him in close contact with the Duke of Wellington throughout his campaigns in Portugal and Spain, and three years after the birth of his illustrious son he returned to this country, and the boy received his early education in a school at Mount Airy, Germantown. Subsequently removing to Washington, he became a pupil of the man who afterwards was celebrated not only as Lincoln's Secretary of the Treasury but as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, Salmon P. Chase. So that you observe, not only from the family history but from the personal contact of young Meade with men of distinction, that he had unusual opportunities afforded to him of rising in the scale of affairs. Unfortunately his father died in middle lifo after a long and ineffectual effort to secure from the government of the United States a recognition of a Florida claim which oper- ated very much like the French Spoliation Claims, in the shape of an assumption on the part of the United States
8 General Meade Anniversary Banquet.
Government in the purchase of territory of claims which United States citizens had against the ceding power. He spent his life and his energy and died of disappointment at not having received that act of justice at the hands of his government which no juet government should withhold. The boy afterwards was sent to West Point Academy at the age of sixteen, graduated four years later, and at the age of twenty joined the squadron of his brother-in-law, Com- modore Dallas. When at Havana they received the news of the Dade Massacre, which ushered in the Seminole War. Owing to the misfortune of a fever contracted in the swamps, he was not able to perform any very active service, but finally being detached upon purely engineering work, he took a part not only in the building of a railroad but in the laying out of the boundary line between Texas and the United States. Subsequently he ran the lines between Texas and Mexico. He engaged in observations at the mouths of the Mississippi, which later led General Humph- reys to investigate more extensively the causes of the fre- quency of the bars and shoals of that great river. He then came to Philadelphia and on the lower Delaware performed services to this port in the way of light-house construction, and about the time of the outbreak of the Mexican War, he was a member of the Topographical Engineers. Becom- ing attached to the staff of General Taylor, he served in the battles of Palo Alto, Resaca de La Palma and in the attack on Monterey, particularly distinguishing himself in a reconnoissance of the enemy's works in front of General Worth's lines, gaining the commendation of his commander. Later he joined the army of General Scott and before Yera Cruz, helped to lay out the lines of circumvallation and to indicate the construction of the naval battery. With this experience and these varied activities he then entered on the Geodetic Survey on the Great Lakes and was in that service as a Major of Topographical Engineers at the time of the outbreak of the Civil War.
Disinclined to accept staff duty, he applied to Governor
General Meade Anniversary Banquet. 9
Curtin and received an appointment as a brigadier-general in command of a division of the famous Pennsylvania Re- serves. Joining the Army of the Potomac under McClellan, he particularly distinguished himself at Games' Mills and at the Battle of Frazier Farm or Qlendale or Charles City Cross Roads, as it is variously called, where he was severely wounded. I will not stop, except simply for a moment, to indicate the value of the services he performed at that last named battle, where by preventing the breaking through of Stonewall Jackson's corps, he guarded the transportation lines across the White Oak Swamp and enabled McClellan's army to reach safely the protection of Malvern Hill. Join- ing the army a second time, his wound healing rapidly, he then became the commander of the Pennsylvania Reserves, subsequently distinguishing himself at South Mountain and Antietam, there taking command of Hooker's corps when Hooker was wounded. Subsequently placed in command of the Fifth Corps, he attracted general attention to himself at Fredericksburg by a fierce attack on the right wing of Lee's army, penetrating far to the rear, and was driven back simply because of heavy pressure with a great loss of gallant men. By the sagacity and the soldier like qualities which he had displayed, as well as by the particular value of a remark made concerning the disastrous battle of Chancellorsville, his name was suggested to the President for appointment to the supreme command of the Army of the Potomac, at the time when Hooker asked to be relieved; and on the 28th day of June, 1863, he found himself suddenly burdened with the responsibility of taking command of a great army, not yet concentrated, without any suggestion of value or any information of importance from the retiring commander, upon the eve of that which was to prove to be a battle for the defence of the soil of his native state against Lee's columns flushed with victory, stimulated by their successes at Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville, and believing that they could conquer in fair fight the Army of the Potomac wherever found. I do not know where it is written in
10 General Meade Anniversary Banquet.
military annals that any soldier, no matter how distinguished or experienced, had ever before upon such short notice been called upon to assume so responsible a command. Modest but dignified, self-possessed and self-reliant, shirk- ing no duty, but impressed by the gravity of his situation, he gathered in his scattered corps, and ascertaining that Lee was at Chambersburg with Hill and Longstreet, and that Ewell was at Carlisle and Early was at Wrightsville, on the Susquehanna, he gave the orders for the concentra- tion of his army in the direction of Gettysburg.
Then with that supreme quality of prudence which indi- cates the foresight of the great commander, he had examined and selected a defensive line along Pipe Creek where he felt that he could safely fight a defensive battle if that proved in the course of events to be the proper situation, pushing out the First Corps under Reynolds, supported by the Eleventh under Howard. On the morning of the 1st of July, that gallant soldier of Pennsylvania, John F. Reynolds, finding Buford's Cavalry engaged to the north of the village of Gettysburg, pressed forward to make disposi- tions for his support when unfortunately, struck by a bullet in the neck, he lost his life on sacred soil. I need not re- count the events of that day of disaster, when Early and Ewell coming in from the northeast by lines from York and Hanover and meeting as the roads converged the forward movement of Hill and Longstreet through the Cashtown Pass, the First Corps and the Eleventh Corps had to suc- cumb under the pressure of superior numbers, but just as both corps were driven back, there arrived on that scene of deadly peril a second son of Pennsylvania, Winfield Scott Hancock, sent by George G. Meade to take command and to indicate whether the field of Gettysburg would afford a proper line on which to post the army to fight for the pres- ervation of the Union and the supremacy of the flag. It was well that such a man, with quick glance and instinctive knowledge of topography, had arrived in order to form the divisions in proper lines to hold the ridge.
General Meade Anniversary Banquet.
11
The line of battle as assumed towards midnight of the 1st of July, General Meade arriving at that time, has been described very often as in the shape of a fish hook. It is impossible to indicate that precisely by words, but by placing my right arm in this position and crooking around the hand so as to form the barb of the hook, you have here at the elbow the position of Round Top, here on the middle fore- arm Little Round Top, there Cemetery Ridge, here Cemetery Hill, and around to the right in northeast and southeast directions Gulp's Hill and Wolfs Hill, while beyond in the open lies the Rummel farm, which you will hear described by Colonel Brooke Rawle. Gn the opposite side indicated by my left arm was the ridge known as the Seminary Ridge, which was occupied by the Confederates. Between them lay that fatal undulating country over which Pickett's charge took place, which will be described by Colonel Nicholson. On the morning of the 2nd of July, an attack was meditated to drive Ewell and Early away from the Federal right, but it was found because of the peculiar formation of the ground and the presence of Rock Creek that this was inadvisable. The various corps were posted in such a way that the First and Twelfth were on the right, the Eleventh was on the Cemetery Hill and on the Cemetery Ridge proper rested the Second Corps under Hancock; the Third under Sickles should have closed its lines in connection with Hancock's corps to Little Round Top where Sykes rested with Sedgwick in reserve. Above on the extreme left rose the high hill of Round Top overlooking the field.
Scenes of carnage, of detonating noise and wild confusion have been described as among the most sublime that man can contemplate, where huge masses of disciplined valor are arrayed under skillful commanders against each other, and all the deadliest instruments of war which science can devise are trained upon the living lines; this is but material, but that which gave sublimity to that scene was the thought that among the clouds hovering above that field of battle were those vital principles for which the flag floats and for which
12 General Meade Anniversary Banquet.
men were willing to lay down their lives. The deadliest fighting on the second day was owing to the misjudgment of the commander of the Third Corps in throwing out his divisions so far in advance of the Cemetery Ridge that the advanced line had both wings in the air. Humphreys com- manded the division on the right, Birney in the centre and DeTrobriand on the left. General Meade riding to the field, with an instinctive judgment as to the true line of defence, divined at once that Sickles had made a mistake in pushing out to the ridge east of the Emmetsburg road. He ordered him to withdraw but found that it was too late, for he was attacked both on the flanks and the centre by Longstreet's corps charging for ward, the men taking advan- tage of the chasm which led to the Devil's Den and up around the base of Little Round Top and the still greater Round Top. Then occurred what General Alexander, a brigadier general of the Confederate army and the com- mander of Longstreet's artillery, in his recent book has described as the finest piece of generalship in the entire war on either side. Meade, with a superb display of tactics, brought powerful forces in succession to the support of the imperilled line, and secured the possession of Round Top, the key to the entire field. The contest was bloody and strenuous, charges and countercharges were frequent, in the Peach Orchard, at the salient and across the Wheat Field the tide of battle ebbed and flowed. Charge and counter- charge; regiment and division and brigade, finally a corps thrown into support, the right wing drawn on to sustain the centre, and then Humphreys, another son of Pennsylvania, performing an evolution which military men have described as one of the marvels of tactical performance under a hot fire, facing round and changing line, arid in good order fall- ing back to the Cemetery Ridge. Sickles' mistake cost in life and in wounds over sixty per cent, of the total losses of the three days' fight. But as the day closed and as Longstreet was driven back, again sprang Pennsylvania to the front, the Pennsylvania Reserves under Crawford
General Meade Anniversary Banquet. 13
charging across the Wheat Field and pressing back the Confederates, and the sun went down upon a bloody and an undecided day.
On the morning of the 3rd of July, it having been found that during the night Ewell had taken advantage of the weakening of the right wing, and had captured some of the positions in the neighborhood of Gulp's Hill, General Meade ordered forward masses of artillery to retake the lost ground. This was accomplished and was the first achievement of the day. Then came a lull — the awful prelude to the storm. All during the forenoon the hot sun beat upon the scene of carnage, where men lay ghastly and dead, where men lay groaning and writhing, where wounds smarted and thirst was maddening, where artillery wagons were overturned and horses were kicking and plunging in agony. Along Cemetery Ridge beat the heart of Pennsylvania, along the entire line pulsed the fate of the nation, back of the Bloody Angle stood the Philadelphia Brigade ready to resist assault. On the opposite line Longstreet massed his artillery. Then Hell vomited. The concentrated fire of 120 guns opened and for two hours belched shot and shell upon the Cemetery Ridge. Lee having failed in his attacks on the right and left wings determined to risk one supreme effort to break the centre and drive Hancock and the Pennsylvanians and the Yermonters and the Massachusetts men and other gallant soldiers of the Union into the jaws of destruction. Hunt's artillery replied for a time, and then reserved its fire to con- centrate it on the advancing line, for across the open space, the details of which will be described by Colonel Nicholson, came Pickett's charge. The expiring effort of the Confed- eracy rose like a billow with a crimson crest and dashed itself against the rock ribbed Cemetery Ridge, and then rolled back, leaving prisoners in our hands, standards capt- ured, broken hopes. Then came the conviction to our army that Gettysburg had been won, that the coolness, the courage, the skill and the perspicacity of the great Pennsyl- vania soldier, George G. Meade, had rescued the Army of
14 General Meade Anniversary Banquet.
the Potomac from the indecision, the incompetency and the failures of its previous commanders, and had planted in the hands of that army a standard of victory which never after- wards was lowered.
In England in the days of the Armada, a dark cloud hung upon the coast, while Europe stood in breathless suspense to see the result of the great cast made in the game of politics then being played by the craft of Borne, the power of Phillip and the genius of Farnese against the Island Queen and her Drakes, her Raleighs, her Effinghams and her Cecils. In the same manner there brooded over the rocky hills of Gettysburg those spirits of Good and Evil which met in deadly conflict like Michael and Satan. The victory of Meade meant on that holy soil that Freedom and Union had triumphed over Secession and Slavery, and had rescued this nation from the petty dismemberment which would have wrecked our majestic planetary system, where every State under the flag of the Republic revolves to the music of the Union about the Constitution of the United States as a cen- tral sun.
I shall not further attempt a biographical sketch in detail, nor shall I attempt a critical estimate of the military genius of Meade based upon a review of his military work. That task has been already done and admirably done, and its fur- ther elucidation belongs to men of military knowledge and experience. I prefer to view Meade as he appears to my mind's eye in the very definite relation of a chosen instru- ment in the hands of Providence for the accomplishment of certain moral and physical results in the promotion of the plain destiny of America. George G. Meade was born to be the victor at Gettysburg, in the same sense that John Marshall was born to decide the case of Marbury vs. Madison. He was born to be the commander at a critical moment, in the same sense that Benjamin Franklin was born to negotiate the French Alliance, and Webster to be the expounder of the Constitution. There is no fatalism in this, but the recognition of the truth that great men, whether
General Meade Anniversary Banquet. 15
statesmen, soldiers, lawyers, merchants, bankers or railroad men, who do great things and influence great movements^ are the products of a long series of phenomena physical and moral, controlled by law, resulting in certain characteristics springing from ancestry, climate, race, training, education, environment and particular aptitude for an emergency, which at a given time and place, under the clash and conflict of antagonistic forces, produce results which propel through the centuries influences which become telluric, and lift the globe in the upclimb of the race from barbarism to civiliza- tion. The charm of the rose, and the sturdiness of the oak, the beauty of woman and the intellect of man, are the prod- ucts of those laws of transformation which have converted stellar influences and impalpable gases into a solid world, teeming with beauty, both intellectual and physical, just as the Invention of Printing, the Discovery of America, the Settlement at Jamestown, the Landing of the Pilgrims, and the Founding of Pennsylvania led to the Declaration of In- dependence, the Framing of the Constitution of the United States, and the Victory at Gettysburg, all three of them wrought out on Pennsylvania soil, and in a masterful sense largely the result of Pennsylvania's contribution to the sum total of achievement. Here is the niche that belongs to George Gordon Meade, filled by a grand and impressive figure, the victor and the hero at the supremest crisis in our military history.
President Pennypacker. Lee had sent Stuart with his cavalry around the Army of the Potomac to make an attack upon the rear. Fortunately it happened that he was met there by that great Pennsylvania Soldier, General Gregg, and was defeated. "We have asked General Gregg to be here tonight. He is nearly eighty years old and unable to attend in this winter season, but he has written a very com- mendatory letter of General Meade, which with your per- mission I shall read.
16 General Meade Anniversary Banquet.
READING, PA., December 8, 1910.
HON. CHARLEMAGNE TOWER, HON. SAMUEL W. PENNYPACKER, COL. WM. BROOKE RAWLE, COL. JOHN P. NICHOLSON.
Committee. Dear Sirs :
I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your let- ter of the 1st inst. extending to me an invitation to be present at a dinner to be given on the 31st inst. by patriotic citizens of Philadelphia as a tribute to the memory of General George Gordon Meade.
I am delighted to know that the memory of that great soldier is to be honored in such an appropriate manner in his home city, and my great regret is that I am compelled to decline an invitation so courteously extended to me to be a guest at the dinner. I am well advanced in years, fast nearing the four score mark, and can only hope to escape the danger incident to old age in the inclement winter sea- son, by remaining under the shelter of my own roof.
In the War of the Rebellion, I enjoyed the privilege of serving in the Army with General Meade, and was familiar with his fine reputation as a Brigade, Division and Corps commander. His accession to the command of the Army of the Potomac on the eve of the battle of Gettysburg, was accepted by that Army with entire satisfaction. That the confidence reposed in him was not misplaced, was shown by the masterly and skillful manner in which he handled the troops under his command which associate his name so gloriously and inseparably with the great victory won at Gettysburg. When General Meade assumed command of the Army of the Potomac I was in command of a Division of Cavalry, and in August of the following year I fell in command of the Cavalry of that Army, and was brought in close official relations with General Meade, for whom I had the highest respect and admiration because of his great
General Meade Anniversary Banquet. 17
ability displayed as an Army Commander. Our personal relations were most agreeable and friendly.
It has always been with his host of friends a matter of great regret, that General Meade had not received profes- sional rewards commensurate with the great and distin- guished service he rendered his Country when its life hung in the balance.
Very respectfully yours,
D. McM. GREGG.
President Pennypacker. The organization composed of the officers of the Army and Navy who served in the War of the Rebellion is the MILITARY ORDER or THE LOYAL LE- GION OF THE UNITED STATES. Its success, like that of most other organizations, is mainly due to the efforts of a single individual of enterprise and energy. He has collected the most comprehensive and finest library of the literature of that war. He is perhaps the most learned student of that great conflict. The fact that the Field of Gettysburg is marked with monuments, from one end to the other, desig- nating the positions of the troops engaged, is largely due to his efforts. He is here tonight, and he will tell you about the great infantry and artillery assault at the crisis of the three days' fight at Gettysburg, which was a final and des- perate effort to break the centre of General Meade's line of battle. I present to you Lieutenant-Colonel John P. Nicholson.
ADDRESS OF LIEUTENANT-COLONEL JOHN P. NICHOLSON.
Lieutenant-Colonel Nicholson then read from the manu- script a graphic and thrilling account of " Longstreet's As- sault on the Union line," in the afternoon of July 3, 1863, during the Battle of Gettysburg, and its repulse, which will be published in connection with a forthcoming series of pa- pers prepared by him relating to the Battles of Antietam, Chancellors ville and Gettysburg.
VOL. XXXV. 2
18 General Meade Anniversary Banquet.
President Pennypacker. There was with General Gregg in his cavalry fight on the right at Gettysburg, a gentleman who also is now a Vice-President of this Society. He was a young fellow then, nineteen years of age, a member of the Senior Class at the University of Pennsylvania on leave of absence, and a Lieutenant in the Third Pennsylvania Cav- alry. He was in the thick of the fight, and afterwards was breveted " for gallant and meritorious services," first as a Major and again as a Lieutenant-Colonel. I have the pleas- ure of introducing to you Lieutenant-Colonel William Brooke Rawle.
ADDRESS OF LIEUTENANT-COLONEL WILLIAM BROOKE RAWLE.
Mr. President, Ladies, Honored Guests and Fellow Members of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania : — As the years roll by, it is, perhaps, because of the intense strain of modern life, and the multitude of affairs which engage our atten- tion, that we are rapidly allowing the mist of time to dim the recollections of the momentous events which occurred in this country nearly half a century ago. To us here in Pennsylvania especially this fact is to be regretted, inasmuch as on our own soil was fought one of the greatest battles of modern times, the most important one in its effects dur- ing the entire conflict of the Civil War of the Southern Rebellion. It is but natural that upon an occasion like this special reference should be made to it, for the words " Meade " and " Gettysburg," " Gettysburg" and " Meade" are synonymous and inseparable. Thanks to the leadership of General George Gordon Meade, himself a citizen of Pennsylvania, our beloved State and City were saved from capture and occupation by an enemy from whom there was much to fear as an invading hostile force.
It is high time now, before all of us who had reached maturity in those days have passed away, that attention should be recalled to the great debt of gratitude which we owe to General Meade. It has been asked : " Why have we chosen the ninety-fifth anniversary of his birth to honor his
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19
memory ? The one hundredth would be more appropriate." But, alas, when this corresponding day in the year 1915 shall arrive, there will be scarcely any one left of those who served under General Meade during that great War, in the glorious old Army of the Potomac, to tell of what they saw, and of the events in which they took part.
I have been requested to tell upon this occasion, as I have done before, the story of one particular phase of that great battle of Gettysburg — and one of supreme importance — the cavalry fight on the right flank and rear of Meade's line, which took place simultaneously with the infantry fight just described by Colonel Nicholson. In the few minutes at my disposal, however, it is impossible to describe it with sufficient particularity, or to do justice to it.
The crisis, the most important event of that great battle, occurred on the third and last day of its continuance, dur- ing the afternoon of July 3, 1863, when a well conceived and concerted movement on the part of General Robert E. Lee, the Confederate commander, with a massed force esti- mated at from fifteen thousand to seventeen thousand in- fantry under General Longstreet, moved from Seminary Ridge on the westward upon the centre of General Meade's position along Cemetery Ridge, while at the same time a force estimated at from six thousand to seven thousand cavalry un- der that other distinguished Confederate General, J. E. B. Stu. art, advanced from the eastward, directed to the same point.
Colonel Nicholson — than whom no one could do it better or even as well — an eye witness of Longstreet's assault, and now and for years past Chairman of the Gettysburg National Park Commission — who has made a thorough study of the battle in all its details, has given us a graphic and thrilling account of the first mentioned movement, known as " Long- street's," or, by many, as " Pickett's Charge," centring upon the point now marked as the " High Water Mark of the Re- bellion." The great preliminary artillery battle which he de- scribes began at a few minutes after one o'clock in the after- noon by the firing of two signal guns by the Washington
20 General Meade Anniversary Banquet.
Artillery of New Orleans. Now I beg to call attention particularly to the correlation of the times of occurrences, according to the weight of authority. The tremendous ar- tillery firing lasted in its intensity until about a quarter be- fore three o'clock, from which time until about three it gradually slackened, and then ceased. At the latter hour Longstreet's assaulting force moved out from the woods in which it had been concealed along Seminary Ridge. It took about twenty minutes for it to move at a steady pace over the three-fourths of a mile or more through the open fields, to the position of the Union lines, and at about a quarter before four o'clock the Confederates began to fall back repulsed.
Meanwhile, what was going on to the eastward of Meade's position ? About two and a half miles to the northeastward of Wolfs Hill, which was the barb of the fish-hook-like shape of Meade's line of battle, and where the Union in- fantry and cavalry picket and skirmish lines connected, General Stuart, screened by woods and hills, had taken posi- tion during the morning, along and a short distance to the southward of the York Pike, with practically all the cavalry then with the Army of Northern Virginia, consisting of the four brigades of General Wade Hampton, General Fitzhugh Lee, General William H. F. Lee (under Colonel Chambliss), and General Jenkins (under Colonel Ferguson), respectively, and four batteries of Horse Artillery — "the main strength and flower of the Confederate cavalry, led by their most distinguished commanders."
General David McM. Gregg, the Commander of the Sec- ond Cavalry Division of the Army of the Potomac, had been ordered to take position in the morning on the right of that Army, between the Hanover Road and the York Pike. This he did with the First and Third Brigades of his Division, which were commanded by Colonels Mclntosh and Irvin Gregg respectively, with Randol's Battery of Horse Artillery. On part of this field, nearer Gettysburg, along Brinkerhoft's Ridge, he had had, the evening before,
General Meade Anniversary Banquet. 21
a sharp skirmish with the celebrated " Stonewall Brigade" of Confederate Infantry. On reaching the place to which he had been ordered he found it in possession of General Ous- ter's "Michigan Brigade" of the Third Cavalry Division with Pennington's Battery of Horse Artillery, which he was directed to relieve and send over to report to General Kil- patrick on the left of the line near Round Top. The force under General Gregg including Ouster's command num- bered about five thousand men, though not more than three thousand were actually engaged in the fight about to be de- scribed (Irvin Gregg's brigade being held in reserve close at hand in full view of the field), as against Stuart's six thousand to seven thousand men.
Prom the position occupied by General Gregg's command we had a fine view over the open country of the tremendous artillery duel going on from two to four miles off. While this was at its height, about two o'clock, Mclntosh sent for- ward part of his brigade to find out what, if anything, was going on beyond a ridge surmounted by trees, called Cress' Ridge, to the northward and westward of where he was posted. It was marvellously fortunate that he did so, for the movement developed the fact that, unseen from our po- sition, Stuart, screened by the ridge, was just starting around General Gregg's left flank, with Jenkins' Brigade, supported by that under the command of Chambliss. Jenkins' Bri- gade in advance, under Ferguson, had to stop to fend off Mclntosh and part of the Michigan Brigade, which had been sent to support and lengthen his line. Then followed some brilliant cavalry fighting, mounted and dismounted, to and fro over the whole field, supported by the horse ar- tillery batteries on both sides. Shortly before three o'clock, just as the great artillery battle over to our left and rear was ceasing preparatory to Longstreet's advance, the First Virginia Cavalry of Fitz Lee's Brigade made a mounted charge upon Randol's Battery, in an endeavor to force its way through and past Gregg's force and strike Meade's line in rear. It was met by the Seventh Michigan, but unsuc-
22 General Meade Anniversary Banquet.
cessfully. The First North Carolina and the Jeff Davis' Legion of Hampton's Brigade moved up to the support of ths First Virginia, and were at first successful in driving our people back, but ultimately all were repulsed by the heavy lines of mounted and dismounted cavalry on both their flanks.
Just then, about ten minutes after three o'clock, when Longstreet's lines of battle had started on their movement to the assault of Cemetery Ridge, there appeared in the dis- tance, emerging from behind the screen of woods on the crossroad by the Stalsmith farm, a little over a mile north of the Hanover Road, heading over the open fields in the direction of our batteries and the rear of centre of Meade's line of battle, a large mass of cavalry — the superb brigades of Wade Hampton and Fitz Lee. Every one of us saw at once that unless this, the grandest attack of all, was checked, the fate of the day would be decided against the Army of the Potomac. They were Stuart's last reserves and his last resource. If the Baltimore Pike was to be reached, and panic and havoc created in the rear of Meade's line of infantry, as intended and hoped for, the important moment had ar- rived, as Longstreet's command was even then moving up to the assault of Cemetery Ridge from the opposite side.
In close columns of squadrons, advancing, side by side, and as if in review, with sabres drawn and glistening like silver in the bright sunlight — the spectacle called forth a murmur of admiration. It was, indeed, a memorable one. Chester, of Randol's Battery, whose section of guns was nearest, opened fire at once, with a range of less than a mile. Pennington, and Kinney, with the other section of Randol's Battery, soon joined in. Canister and shell were poured in- to the steadily approaching columns as fast as the guns could fire. Our dismounted men fell back to the right and left, and such as could got to their horses. The mounted skirm- ishers rallied and fell into line. Then Gregg rode over to the First Michigan, which, as it had come upon the field a short time before, had formed close column of squadrons
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supporting the batteries, and gave the word to charge. As its Colonel, Town, ordered sabres to be drawn and the col- umn to advance, Custer dashed up with similar orders, and placed himself at its head. The two opposing columns drew nearer and nearer to each other, the Confederates out- numbering their opponents three or four to one. The gait increased — first the trot, then the gallop. Wade Hampton's battle-flag floated in the van of his brigade. The orders of the Confederate officers to their men could be distinctly heard by us, "Keep to your sabres, men! keep to your sabres !" for the lessons we had given them at Kelly's Ford, at Brandy Station and at Aldie had been severe. There their cry had been, " Put up your sabres ! Draw your pistols and fight like gentlemen!" But the sabre was never a favorite weapon with the Confederate cavalry, and now, in spite of the lessons of the past, the warnings of the present were not heeded by all.
As the charge was ordered the speed increased, every horse on the jump, every man yelling like a demon. The columns of the Confederates blended, but their alignment was maintained. Chester put charge after charge of double canister into their midst, his men bringing it up to the guns by the armful. The execution was fearful, but the long rents closed up at once. As the opposing columns drew nearer and nearer, each with good alignment, every man gathered his horse well under him, and gripped his weapon the tighter. Though ordered to retire his guns, toward which the head of the assaulting column was directed, Chester kept on firing until the enemy was within fifty yards of him, and the head of the First Michigan had come into the line of his fire. Staggered by the fearful execution of the two batteries, some of the men in the front of the Con- federate column began to check their horses and wavered. Some turned and the column fanned out to the right and left, but those behind came pressing on. Custer, seeing some of the men in the front ranks of the enemy hesitate, waved his sabre and shouted to those following him, " Come
24 General Meade Anniversary Banquet.
on, you Wolverines !" and with a fearful yell the First Michi- gan rushed on, Ouster four lengths ahead.
Mclntosh, as he saw the Confederate column advancing, sent his Adjutan^General, Captain Walter S. Newhall, with orders to Captains Treichel and Rogers, of the Third Penn- sylvania Cavalry, whose squadrons were deployed as dis- mounted skirmishers on the enemy's right, to mount and rally their men for a charge on his flank as it passed. But sixteen men could get their horses, and with five officers they made for the battle-flag. Newhall, sharing the excite- ment of the moment, rushed in, by the side of Treichel and Rogers, at the head of the little band. Captain Miller, whose squadron of the Third Pennsylvania had been fight- ing mounted in skirmishing order, rallied it and fired a volley from the woods on the right as the Confederate column passed parallel with his line but a short distance off, and then, with sabres drawn, charged down into the over- whelming masses of the enemy.
The small detachment under Treichel and Rogers struck the enemy first, all making for Wade Hampton's color-guard. Newhall was about seizing the flag when a sabre cut was directed at his head, and he was compelled to parry it. At the same moment the color-bearer lowered his spear and struck Newhall full in the face with it, knocking him sense- less to the ground. Nearly every officer and man in the little band was killed or wounded. Almost at the same moment, Miller, with his squadron, struck the enemy's left flank about two-thirds of the way down the column. Going through and through, he cut off the rear portion and drove it back past the Rummel farm buildings up to the Con- federate batteries on Cress' Ridge, and nothing but the scat- tering of his men prevented his going farther and taking the guns, wounded though he was.
Meanwhile the two columns had come together head on with a loud resounding crash like the falling of timber — the one led by Wade Hampton and Fitz Lee, and the other by Custer — and were fighting hand to hand. Mclntosh, with
General Meade Anniversary Banquet. 25
his staff and orderlies, and such scattered men from the Michigan and other regiments as he could get together, and part of the Fifth Michigan, charged in with their sabres. For minutes, which seemed like hours, amid the clashing of the sabres, the rattle of the small arms, the frenzied impre- cations, the demands to surrender, the undaunted replies and the appeals for mercy, the Confederate column stood its ground. Captain Thomas of Mclntosh's staff, seeing that more was needed to turn the tide, cut his way over to the woods on the right, where he knew he could find Captain Hart, who had remounted his battalion of the First New Jersey. In the melee, near the colors, was an officer of high rank, and the two headed the battalion for that part of the fight. Then it was that Wade Hampton was wounded.
By this time the edges of the Confederate column had begun to wear away, and the outside men to draw back. As Hart's battalion and the other parties charged in from all sides, the enemy turned. Then there was a pell-mell rush of the Confederates toward their rear, our men follow- ing in close pursuit. Many prisoners were captured, and many of our men, through their impetuosity, were carried away by the overpowering current of the retreat.
The pursuit was kept up past the Rummel farm buildings, the key point of the field, and the enemy was driven back into the woods beyond on Cress' Ridge, and toward the York Pike. The line of fences, and the farm buildings, which in the beginning of the fight had been in the posses- sion of the enemy, remained in ours until the end. All serious fighting for the day was over. Longstreet's assault upon Cemetery Ridge had been effectually repulsed by Hancock " The Superb," of Pennsylvania. So also, the simultaneous attack by Stuart on the right flank and rear of Meade's army had been repulsed under the successful leadership of that other magnificent soldier from Pennsyl- vania, General David McM. Gregg. General Meade's vic- tory along the whole line at Gettysburg was complete.
26 General Meade Anniversary Banquet.
President Pennypacker. And there came a change ! The next speaker is a distinguished man of letters, whose verse has received commendations abroad as well as at home. He has written for us a lyric. I want you all to listen to it, for it is indeed a meritorious production. I call upon Mr. Charles Leonard Moore.
Mr. Moore read his poem, which follows:
GETTYSBURG.
I see the sunny, sultry days of that far battle June,
And the earth with riches weighted lies in a tranced swoon ;
But the bells rock in the steeples and the crowds sway here and there,
And wild Alarm rides through the land and Rumor rules the air.
For Lee is o'er the border
And the State reels at the stroke,
And order and disorder
Are to meet in battle smoke ;
In the battle of all battles,
Fates farthest leash of war
For the South, that wears the Victor's palms
And knows a Conqueror's star.
I see a man just back from fight his musket take once more,
And a woman aids to arm him and waves him from the door,
And neither pallor flecks her cheek, nor tears her orbed eyes dim.
' ' If he did not go," exulteth she, "I would not live with him."
For Lee is o'er the border
With all the Rebel wrath,
And Meade is mustering his might
Across the Southron's path;
And life and home and honor
Upon the duel bide,
And men are heroes at the teat,
And women deified.
I see the gathering lines of blue wind o'er the distant land, And the Chieftain in whose hand is thrust the baton of command : The men move on through day and night while women watch and pray, And great are the hearts that march to fight and great are those that
stay :
For with Lee across the border It is grips till the weaker fall ; It is now or never for either tide ; It is win or lose for all ;
General Meade Anniversary Banquet. 27
Upon a nation's warlike course
The clouds must gather and stay,
Or be broken and shattered and put to flight
And roll and die away.
Guard then, O land who guarded thee, who fought in those great days, And aureoles pour around their heads, bright as the battle blaze; But most round his, the firm, the wise, the Warder of the Gate, Who tore the wreath from the Victor's brow and kept and saved the
State !
For when Lee was o'er the border It was Meade and Meade alone Who swept those hurrying hosts of men To their tryst with death and moan, Who stationed them and ranked them, And bided storm on storm, And rode himself in the threatened gap Ere his lines had chance to form.
Our heroes won us Empire and Peace — half joy, half curse —
And the best we can do for them is the laud of speech and verse,
For these can keep in memory still the gleam of gun and blade,
And the steel-gray glint that came in eyes death could not make afraid.
So if across our border
Another foe shall come
Our souls may stand apparelled
For the rolling of the drum,
And armed men shall throng the streets
With all the olden fire,
And women on the thresholds stand
Like spirits to inspire.
President Pennypacker. We are a very fortunate Society tonight. "We have with us a Lieutenant-General who com- manded the Army of the United States. When he was a youth, he rose from a Captain of a company to the com- mand of a division in General Meade's army, and having been trained in that discipline he never was daunted either by the Southron Lee, or by the Apache chief Geronimo, or by that strenuous President who became his commander-in- chief. I have the pleasure of introducing to you Lieutenant- General Nelson A. Miles.
28 General Meade Anniversary Banquet.
ADDRESS OF LIEUTENANT-GENERAL NELSON A. MILES.
Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen : I esteem it an honor to mingle with those who honor the memory of one of the greatest characters in our history. I esteem it an honor to come to this magnificent banquet, and to mingle with the members of this Historical Society, one of the grandest, noblest and best in all our country. You honor yourselves, in my opinion, in honoring the memory of that son of Pennsylvania, that great commander of our principal army, in the greatest crisis our Republic has ever known. Your orator has given us a most interesting account of the history of the family and of the accomplishments of that distinguished officer, how he was so well fitted for the great responsibility, and how he was so well equipped at the time when we needed a man of that build. He was a marked man. He was well known to the military men of this country. Every position that he had occupied, of field offi- cer, of brigade, division and corps commander, had been filled with great ability, and his qualification was well known to his comrades and to those interested in the welfare of our country, and yet, as has been truly said this evening, he was assigned to that important command without notification or intimation that he must be prepared for it, and you might search history in vain to find another instance where a gen- eral has been assigned to the command of a great army under such trying circumstances and weighted down with such grave responsibilities, and then won such a glorious victory.
We have also listened with great interest to a 'description of that battle. We could almost see it re-enacted. It has been so beautifully and so graphically described here this evening, that I would like a copy to read and to hand to my friends in every part of the country. It ought to be read by every American ! It is somewhat surprising to see how little interest is felt by our people in the events of that great Civil War, or War of the Rebellion, as it is called, and to
General Meade Anniversary Banquet. 29
notice how little is known of the history of that heroic age. The dark cloud of war had been gathering over the Repub- lic for generations, and it finally broke with all its force and destructive power. It had been going on for two years before a son of Pennsylvania was ordered to the command of the principal army of the Republic. No man within the borders of our country had ever assumed responsibility under such trying circumstances. No man had been en- trusted with such grave responsibilities as was George G. Meade previous to the battle of Gettysburg. The army of the Union had not met with brilliant success before that. They had met with some success and with many disasters. Immediately preceding that, as has been told tonight, were two great battles in which the army of the Union had been defeated. Immediately preceding that, at the Battle of Chancellorsville, the Union Army outnumbered the Confed- erate Army nearly two to one, and yet, through no fault of its own, it was forced to retreat ingloriously before the tri- umphant army of the enemy. It had dwindled from nearly 130,000 to only 80,000 between the time of the commence- ment of the first engagement at Chancellorsville and Gettys- burg. Its severe losses in battle and the campaign, and various other causes had reduced its numbers nearly one half. Its wounded had fallen into the hands of the enemy. Its dead remained unburied on the field at Chancellorsville. It was discouraged, disheartened, and what was more seri- ous to our country, was the fact that a feeling of discourage- ment, a want of confidence, a feeling of disaflfection had been produced in the Northern States, so much so, that en- listments were growing slack. It was almost impossible to enlist men for the cause. If the Army of the Potomac had been destroyed or captured on the field of Gettysburg, the end of the Republic would have been reached. No other army could have been recruited in the Northern States that would have stopped the Army of the Confederacy from taking possession of Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York and the New England States. No other army
30 General Meade Anniversary Banquet.
could have been raised at that time. In fact, it was almost impossible for a Union officer to go through these northern cities back to his home after being wounded at Chancellors- ville, without being almost insulted. Thousands of men in regiments had to be sent to New York, and some even to Philadelphia, to maintain law and order. The crisis had been reached. Everything depended upon the success of that army, and under those circumstances George G. Meade was assigned to command.
He took a discouraged, defeated army, that was being manoeuvred against the most exalted army that ever stood on American soil. They were exalted with their own suc- cess. They believed themselves capable of accomplishing anything that Lee directed. The feeling may be realized from the indications that we know existed. Take, for in- stance, the remark of Longstreet, one of the ablest field commanders, who had recently joined and re-inforced Lee with his division. He asserted that the Army of Northern Virginia could accomplish anything, was capable of any- thing, meaning it was possible not only to whip the Army of the Potomac, but to capture the great cities of the East- ern States, and that feeling extended down to the very hum- blest soldier in the ranks, to the man who carried a rifle or a drum. That is illustrated by the remark of a Confeder- ate soldier who had been worn down by the campaign and wounded, yet was with his company in the ranks, and was offered his discharge by his captain, but he said, " Captain, I think I won't take this discharge now. I think I will wait and go on with the army until we reach Baltimore." That was the feeling that existed in that army from highest to lowest. And within a few days from that time, that master mind of war, issued positive orders, needed orders, that enforced absolute discipline. The orders of General Meade to his corps commanders were to cause the instant death of any one, officer or soldier, who left the ranks or failed to do his duty in the face of the enemy ! He inspired confidence, he inspired fortitude, and it was well placed. That army realized that they had a head and a master mind
General Meade Anniversary Banquet. 31
directing their affairs, and no army ever gathered itself for the heroic struggle, for the desperate struggle, with more fortitude, courage and heroism than the Army of the Po- tomac, and they were ready for any service and any sacrifice. Those two armies met. General Meade knew his com- manders. He knew another son of Pennsylvania, Reynolds, and he also knew the qualifications of another son of Penn- sylvania, Winfield Scott Hancock. Pennsylvania had so much to do with that great battle. All honor to her sons, all honor to the State, and yet those two armies gathered in deadly struggle, lasting for three days. The army under George G. Meade won the Waterloo of the Western Hem- isphere. They turned the scale. They won the victory. They sent hack that invading, shouting, conquering army, defeated, humiliated, broken, shattered, back to the fields of Virginia, never again to cross the Potomac or invade the northern territory, never again to fight as it had fought be- fore. Some one has said that General Meade never received the recognition of his services, never was rewarded in the way he ought to have been, and something ought to be done, some great monument ought to be erected to his mem- ory, some great demonstration ought to be made by the people of the country as a recognition of what he accom- plished, and yet what better monument can he have? Hun- dreds of millions of Americans will visit Gettysburg. Strangers from every part of the globe will visit Gettysburg for hundreds and thousands of years, and they can never separate the name of General George G. Meade from the field of Gettysburg. It is there identified with the glory of American valor and American patriotism. It is more beau- tified and adorned in marble, granite and imperishable bronze than all the other battlefields of the world, and it will re- main a lasting monument for General Meade, for Pennsyl- vania, for the heroes that fought and fell and died and won the victory, for Gettysburg, for the great Republic, for free government, for democratic government, not only for our country but eventually for the world. All honor to Meade and the glorious army that he commanded !
32 General Meade Anniversary Banquet.
President Pennypacker. It is very evident that until General Miles spoke, you were only getting the effervescence. You are now having the real beer that is always found at the bottom of the mug. Not all the victories, by any means, were won on the land. Some of them were gained at sea. The War of 1812 was won by the Navy, and in the Rebel- lion the Monitor overwhelmed the Merrimac, Porter opened up the Mississippi, Farragut found his way into Mobile, the Kearsage sunk the Alabama, and we were helped in all ways by the Navy. You have a gentleman with us, who after fighting through that war at sea, did not hesitate to encounter the dangers of the Arctic Ocean. I have the pleasure of presenting to you Rear Admiral George W. Melville.
ADDRESS OF REAR ADMIRAL GEORGE W. MELVILLE, U. 8. N.
Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania : My theme for this evening is the Navy ! The Navy of the United States. What a theme for a five minutes' speech? But before proceeding, permit me to make an Epigram, that we all may readily remember.
Notwithstanding the hopeful efforts of our peace societies, the Army and the Navy are a necessity, and must and shall live in the future as in the past. They are the best possible guarantee of peace, and the lowest possible monetary insur- ance against war.
From the beginning of the life of the Republic, the Navy has been the idol of the people. Away back in the days of Paul Jones, Decatur, Hull, Barry, the first Truxton and Porter, down to our modern time of Farragut, Porter and Rowan, — the great men of our Naval history have hewn out with their swords their victories, and have made famous history for our nation.
And, within the last few years, our new Navy has not been slow in showing to the people of the world, that our Naval commanders have not forgotten the cunning of their craft, nor lost the courage to do and to dare, where duty called them.
General Meade Anniversary Banquet. 33
I need not call to the memory of our friends tonight, the names of Dewey, Sampson, Schley, Clark, Wainwright, and the hundred other heroes not mentioned in the daily de- spatches to the people. It is not necessary to sing the praises of our Naval heroes to such an audience as we have here tonight. You know them all !
I need not tell you how our Army and Navy did our duty in the past, back to back, and shoulder to shoulder, during the War of the Rebellion; at Vicksburg, Port Hudson, Pittsburg Landing, Fort Fisher. Aye a hundred times the Army and Navy fought together, and knew no failure ! There was no jealousy, it was only a question of who should be first in the thickest of the fray.
So, too, down to the present day, from the landing of a handful of our ancient and honorable Marine Corps at Guantanamo Bay (where our flag was first planted with honor in the face of the enemy, and held the Spanish forces at bay) up to the time of the destruction of the Spanish fleet, and the surrender of Santiago, we were never found wanting! And permit me to say, I do not believe that gal- lant band received its full meed of praise, where there was more than "Enough Glory for all."
But to the veterans of '61 to '65 I would especially address myself tonight. It is not necessary that a patriot should wear upon his shoulder the star of a General, or bear upon his sleeve the stripes of an Admiral, to be cither illus- trious or patriotic. He who carried a musket, or pulled a lock string ; reefed a topsail in a gale of wind, or stood a trick at the wheel, — who did his duty and did it well, — is the real hero!
When we look back to the dark days of '61 to '65, when the youth and manly beauty of this the fairest and brightest of God's land on the face of the globe, arose as one man to defend the principles of good government ; when we were young and fair, before the down of manhood had shaded our cheeks, we stood together, shoulder to shoulder, to de- fend the rights of free born American citizens, and to blot VOL. xxxv — 8
34 General Meade Anniversary Banquet.
out the one sinister bar on our escutcheon, the blood-red stripe of slavery, that this greatest and grandest of Repub- lics may live ! That down through the ages yet to come, the history of this grand Republic might live! And that we, the boys of 1861, though not known by name, will yet live as a part of that glorious Arrny of the Republic, whose praises will be sung in the pseans of the coming centuries, as the loyal hearts who preserved us our nation, and prepared for all future time, that heroic example that will teach all coming nations of men, how to live and how to die to save a nation !
Then we were young ; now we are old ; — and our numbers are becoming smaller as time rolls on. Yet, after all, my comrades and shipmates, what a blessed thing it is that the eternal rest comes at last to our weary souls, after our long and rude tossing, — buffeted by the billows of misfortune, as many of us have been; sun-burned and frozen by every clime ; like the battered hulks of the good old ships, in which we sailed.
We, of the sea-faring class, can all call to mind the burial of some dear old shipmate, far, far away from home, and friends. We have laid them to rest in every part of the globe, aye, and buried them, too, beneath the lap and roll of every crested sea. From the equator, with festering fever, to either pole, where the Snow Gods and Ice King hold ever- lasting sway, I say, we, the poor wanderers of the ocean wave, have laid to sleep some one of those who stood shoulder to shoulder with us in the shock of battle. We laid them to rest in the mariner's grave, where neither wife nor sister, brother nor friend, can again visit their lonely graves — noth- ing beyond the weird, happy thought of family and friends that they lie sleeping amid the spicy groves of some ocean isle, or are happily stowed away among the rose-tinted corals of the Indian Seas !
How much happier for us whose roving life has about ceased, whose battered hulks, with our spars and rigging stripped, and sent below, with an empty beef cask over our
General Meade Anniversary Banquet. 35
mast heads, are laid up in ordinary, awaiting the last pipe of the good boatswain's call of all hands to muster.
And when we, too, are called, whether we belong to the starboard, or port watch, and are relieved from duty, and our number is made, let us hope that some kind friend — for we cannot always have a shipmate to do the last rites for us — will scatter the flowers of love and respect over our last resting place, and murmur the blessed sentiment — "That here lie and sleep well, they who fought to save a nation !"
Some few years ago, at a meeting of our Order at Min- neapolis, I made a public statement that now has become almost a classic. It was this : — " The Navy of the United States, both in its personal and material, that man for man, ship for ship, ton for ton, and gun for gun, has not its su- perior on the face of the globe." And that holds good to- day, and we improve as time rolls on.
President Pennypacker. Again we are a fortunate Society tonight. You have heard General Miles. Here are two of a kind. We have another General who commanded the Army of the United States. He is an improvement because he is a Pennsylvanian. He was born in Pittsburgh, that simple, innocent, but prosperous city in the western part of our State. His good fortune equalled his merit. I was in the service myself for a short time. I went out as a private, but I came back a private. He went into the service as a private and came out at the head of the army. It gives me great pleasure to present Lieutenant-General Samuel B. M. Young.
ADDRESS OF LIEUTENANT-GENERAL S. B. M. YOUNG.
Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen : George "Washington in his last message to Congress said : " Whatever argu- ments may be drawn from particular examples superficially, a thorough examination of the subject will evince that the Art of War is both comprehensive and complicated; that it demands much previous study, and that the possession of
36 General Meade Anniversary Banquet.
it, in its most approved and perfect state, is always of great moment to the security of a nation."
From personal experience I know that, in elementary tactics, organization of companies and battalions, their equipment and supply, young officers of ordinary capacity, education and ambition can make themselves proficient in a few months ; but this proficiency is merely the A-B-C of military science. A General, however, must know much more before he is capable of organizing or commanding an army, selecting a proper base of operations, mano3uvring his army to successfully reach a chosen objective point, and directing the proper and advantageous disposition of his troops on the battlefield.
The saying that "Every French soldier carried in his knapsack the baton of a Marshal " is certainly laudable, pro- vided the soldier carried in his head the qualifications of a Marshal.
We learn from history that nearly all of Napoleon's great and trusted generals in command of armies, were either edu- cated in military schools or had large experience in previous wars. Marshals like Ney, MacDonald, and Murat, who were so terrible and effective on the field of battle, when directed by the master genius, were sorry failures in stra- tegic combinations when exercising independent commands.
At the commencement of our great Civil War, many of us believed in Heaven-born and politically nurtured gen- erals, but it was soon found advantageous to cultivate the native variety. In this native variety we found our Ney, our MacDonald, and our Murat, all essential as great leaders of integral parts of an army under direction of a master mind ; and we also found our Grant, our Sherman, our Meade, our Thomas, our Sheridan, who by their superb abilities and master minds became exponents of the comprehensive and complicated Art of War, and directed our armies to those grand victories that won our cause; cemented our national structure, and enabled us to go forward with the upbuilding of the greatest government in the era of mankind.
General Meade Anniversary Banquet. 37
We are not assembled here, my friends, for the purpose of fighting again the great battles of the Civil War. We are here as proof of our continued respect, reverence and admiration for the greatest soldier our State has produced, and one among the greatest produced by our nation in the greatest war of modern times — George Gordon Meade.
The memory of the dead is honored and revered for what they were, what they stood for, and the results they accom- plished in life.
There is something in human nature which causes us to reward merit. The actual knowledge of a great thing ac- complished is a thousand times more potent than a library of arguments as to how it could not have been done with- out the advice and superior judgment of this, that, or the other individual, and that this, that or the other is entitled to the credit for the great act accomplished. We cannot recall to mind the life and work of a great man in any walk of life, without gaining something useful besides the pleas- ure of wandering in his neighborhood ; and it is a particular pleasure for me to wander in memory in the neighborhood of that illustrious soldier of Pennsylvania, who was born December 31, 1815, graduated from the United States Mili- tary Academy, and commissioned Second Lieutenant in the Artillery in 1835, and served in the Florida War against the Seminole Indians, where he contracted an illness that caused him to resign in 1836. The following year we find him, with health restored, Assistant Engineer in active service of his country surveying the Delta of the Mississippi ; then the Texas boundary, and the northwestern boundary of the United States to 1842, when he was commissioned in the Topographical Engineers, and continued in the boundary and lake surveys until the commencement of the Mexican War, where we find him under Taylor in the battles of Palo Alto, Resaca de la Palma, and Monterey ; and under Scott in the siege of Vera Cruz, after which he had charge of constructing lighthouses in Delaware Bay, and mapping surveys of Florida Reefs. Again serving in '49-'50 against
38 General Meade Anniversary Banquet.
hostile Indians in Florida, and thence on the Geodetic Sur- vey until the breaking out of the Civil War, where we find him in charge of all the northern lake surveys.
With the foundation of education at the best military school in the world — a post-graduate course of practical ap- plication in the Florida and Mexican Wars, and a grand university course in scientific work extending from Florida to California, and from Maine to Oregon, I fail to recall an officer of our army who entered the War of the Rebellion better equipped in mind, body and training, for performing the duties of a General Officer, to which grade George Gor- don Meade was appointed in 1861.
He was no " Heaven-born General." He was of the hardy, sturdy variety, indigenous to the soil, cultivated in the nurs- ery of West Point, and improved in twenty-five years of practical scientific work throughout the length and breadth of our country. As a brigade, division, and corps com- mander, he met every obligation of duty devolving upon him earnestly and conscientiously — not only to the satisfac- tion and gratification of his superiors, but also to his subor- dinates to whom he always gave just credit for meritorious work; while from his superiors he withheld nothing for him- self which was not truly his own, and fairly won. In this, as in all other respects, he had the strictest integrity of char- acter. He was quick, sensitive and impetuous tempered — even irascible and imperious to those who thwarted his wishes, but to all treating him with respect and considera- tion he was gentle, polished and courteous. By nature he was a genial-hearted gentleman.
Although unfamiliar with supreme command, the high responsibility was suddenly thrust upon him in the night when he was asleep in his tent.
When we consider that McDowell, McClellan, Burnside and Hooker, his predecessors in command of that army, after careful preparation of plans, and with numerically su- perior force, had, each in turn, been thwarted and beaten by the opposing army — the three latter by that great master
General Meade Anniversary Banquet. 39
in the Art of War, Robert E. Lee, who now confronted him ; and that in less than a week after assuming command of an army so often defeated by the same opposing army, directed by that same master genius, he had fought and won that great battle of Gettysburg — that great victory which checked the tide of war in the channel of maddening de- feat, and turned it back into the channel of brilliant success, we at last found the General who proved himself worthy to command the Army of the Potomac — the last, the great- est, and the only successful commander of that Army. He accomplished a work the magnitude of which can only be estimated by considering the appalling calamity that would have fallen on our country had Lee won that battle.
We find' Meade's life worthy of emulation in all parts that go to make a good citizen and a great soldier. He had an excellent and a well-poised mind, disciplined by educa- tion, cultivated by study, and strengthened by reflection. Whatever he undertook was well, if not brilliantly done. Fortunate indeed for our country he chose the military profession.
Braver than a lion — uncompromising and determined — yet just, kind and generous ; imperious and impetuous — yet modest and simple, warm and loyal, without fear and with- out reproach. A great soul — a grand soldier — a refined gentleman, and an exalted type of that noblest work of God — an honest man.
President Pennypacker. As I have said to you before, we are a fortunate Society tonight. There are three of a kind. We have another General who commanded the armies of the United States. Those of you who are as old as I am, and many of you are much older, can remember that Edward Bates, of Missouri, almost reached the presidency of the United States. His son went into the army, and naturally enough he reached the head of it. He is here tonight. I introduce to you Lieutenant-General John C. Bates.
40 General Meade Anniversary Banquet.
ADDRESS OF LIEUTENANT-GENERAL JOHN C. BATES.
Mr. President, Members of the Historical Society of Pennsyl- vania, Ladies and Gentlemen : It has been a great pleasure to me to be here tonight, as I had the great honor of serv- ing on the personal staff of General Meade during the whole time he commanded the Army of the Potomac. His char- acter has been so well described tonight that as I am no speaker, I shall not attempt to give any description. I thoroughly endorse the views expressed by Generals Miles and Young in regard to him. General Miles spoke espe- cially of his being a good disciplinarian. He was. He disciplined himself as well as others. I doubt if we had another officer who could have filled the position in nominal command of an army under an immediate superior, as did General Meade. I can only say, I am delighted to be here with my old chief on the roll of honor. I feel, as has been said tonight, that your society is honoring itself in honoring him.
President Pennypacker. There are several other gentle- men here, who I am sure you would like to listen to, but there must be an end to everything, no matter how good it may be. Permit me to congratulate you on the success of this dinner, wish you all a happy New Year, and bid you good night.
Joseph Richardson's Road. 41
JOSEPH RICHARDSON'S EGAD. A BIT OF COLOR FROM THE FORGOTTEN PAST.
BY HON. SAMUEL W. PENNYPACKER.
THE Indians had a village at Conestoga, in what is now Lancaster County, not far from the Susquehanna River. When they wanted for any reason to go to Coaquannock, at the site of Philadelphia, they followed the Conestoga Creek to its head-waters and thence crossing to the sources of the French Creek, went down this stream to its mouth, where is now the borough of Phoenixville. On the way they passed through the beautiful valley in which later was erected the forge for making iron called Coventry, the second if not the first in the province. The deposit of iron- ore at this place was discovered and pointed out to Samuel Nutt, the founder of the industry, by an Indian chief, and it is pleasing to know that Nutt, not ungrateful, gave to the daughter of the Indian an iron kettle for which he was charged 4s. 6d. At the point where the trail reached the river Schuylkill, and where many years afterward the British under Cornwallis, in the campaign of 1777, forced a passage of the stream, there was a ford long called by the settlers Indian Ford or Indiantown Ford, but to become famous at the time of the. Revolution ag Gordon's Ford. To the region of country on the east side of the river extending as far southward as the Perkiomen, the Indians gave the euphonious name of Olethgo or Oletheho. In the sorry modern days, when men of enterprise and wealth in Phila- delphia seek the relief of country life, they are carried out to the flat unwatered and unattractive lands along the main line of the Pennsylvania railroad, but in the early time, either more discerning or less subject to influence, they pushed their way northward and founded homes where be-
42 Joseph Riclwrdson's Road.
tween rugged hills, through green and fertile valleys, rapid and romantic streams empty their waters into the Schuylkill. Among these vigorous men was Joseph Richardson. On the second of June, 1710, he bought one thousand acres of alluvial land lying in the corner enclosed by the Schuylkill and the Perkiomen, and thereafter is described in the records, and described himself as Joseph Richardson, of Olethgo. He was the only son of Samuel Richardson, the first alderman of Philadelphia, member of the Court of Common Pleas, Provincial Councillor, and with the excep- tion of Samuel Carpenter, the richest man in the city, owning all of the ground on the north side of Market Street from Second Street to the Delaware River. Joseph Richard- son collected down to the time of his death, the ground rents upon this property which had been devised to him by his father. William Hudson, Mayor of the city, married his sister Mary. Abraham Bickley, whose warehouse is shown on Cooper's Prospect of the Port of Philadelphia and from whom he bought the tract in Olethgo, married his sister Elizabeth. Edward Lane, who owned seventy-five hundred acres on the Perkiomen, where he built a mill and a tavern and founded St. James Episcopal Church, married his sister Ann, and doubtless he was influenced by the proximity of Lane, a personal friend of Penn, in making the purchase. When he married Elizabeth, daughter of John Bevan, June 29th, 1696, there was an elaborate settle- ment after the English fashion, on record in Philadelphia, in which his father gave him five hundred acres of land at Bristol, and her father gave her £.200 as a marriage portion. While living on this tract at Bristol, he sent his four sons, Samuel, Aubrey, Edward and John to school to Francis Daniel Pastorius, and that learned scholar and famous colonist wrote in his book of accounts: u 1712, 1 August Abre & Neddy to school at 4d. per week to the 3d day of November 104 days 8s 8d." He was a Friend, very rigid in faith and observance. The minutes of Haverford Monthly Meeting in 1714 set forth : " friends inhabiting about Per-
Joseph Richardson's Road. 43
quoraing and this side of Schuylkill in ye Valley being desirous y* a meeting might be allowed ym every other mo. to be and begin att Lewis Walker's house the first in 2nd Mo. next and thence every other month at Joseph Richard- son's house until ye 9th mo. next.'1 When John Fothergill, the father of Dr. John Fothergill, the most famous physician of his time in London, travelled through the country in December of 1721, he said in his journal : " The 15th we went over to Perquiomen, where we had a good Meeting in a sense of the Prevalency of the Power of Truth. We lodged with Joseph Richardson in whose house we had a serviceable humbling season with his Family and some others, who came in that evening." Years later he wai tempted and to some extent fell from grace. The fact is recorded on the 28th of 3d mo. ,1745, in the following words: " Providence overseers acquaint this meeting that Joseph Richardson had given leave to the Priest to marry his Daughter contrary to the Discipline of Friends and he being present acknowledged his Transgression and was sorry for it, which was received." Happily for him the Meeting could be forgiving, as well as just in the rendition of judgment. Notwithstanding the strictness of his Quaker creed he had several controversies, one of which even John Cadwalader found it difficult to settle, and he wore on his coat silver buttons, some of them still preserved, on which were engraved the arms of the family. He owned ten negro slaves, Angola, Jack, Jack's wife, Cudgo, Edinborough, Solomon, Phillis, old Phillis, Betty, and Parthenia. These were not his only servants. We are told in the Pennsylvania Gazette for May 9th, 1733, published by Benjamin Franklin : u Run away the 6th. of this instant May from Joseph Richardson of Perkiomy in the Township of New Provi- dence in the County of Philadelphia, a servant Man named William Brown alias William Darrell, aged 21 years, he is of a middle Stature, hollow eyed, large nose, down look, and very round shouldered, his Hair lately cut oft'; he had on when he went away a new Felt Hat, a close bodye Coat
44 Joseph Richardson's Road.
and a great Coat of a lightish colour and brass Buttons, a Pair of Pumps with Peaked Toes ; he took with him a large black Gelding branded with W. B. Paces well, shod all round, and took a man's Saddle and Bridle, likewise a Small Trunk, having in it some Womens apparel viz. Some Handkerchiefs, Caps and a Black Padesway Hood and Six Shillings in Money. Whoever takes up said Servant and Horse and brings them to Joseph Richardson aforesaid or to George Emlen in Philadelphia or Secures them so as they may be had again shall have eight pounds as a Reward and reasonable Charges paid by me.
JOSEPH RICHARDSON."
Fate has many anomalies and time brings many reverses. The descendants of the Norman dukes of the days of the Conquest have disappeared from the earth, and the descen- dants of the villeins and peasants own the land over which they held sway. The records of the past tell us with min- ute detail the features of the servants, but the faces of their masters have faded into obscurity. However, we know that Joseph Richardson, of Olethgo, when he went abroad rode a black branded horse whose gait was a pace and not a trot, that it was customary to shoe the horses that followed the woods paths only in front, that he wore boots with round toes and when he went home at nights he took them off and put on pumps with peaked toes, and that his wife wore caps, covered them with a black Padesway hood lest they be too conspicuous and that she used pocket handkerchiefs. It may be added that when she came to him she brought with her not only the £200 in money, but a pedigree that ran back into many a line of Bourbon and Plantagenet.
The great city, of perhaps ten thousand people, where his early days had been spent and where his ground rents matured, was twenty-four miles away. How did he get to it on his black horse ? The purpose of this story, piecing together the facts which some old manuscripts have by a lucky chance preserved, is to tell the manner of his going.
Joseph Richardson's Road. 45
Moses Coates, a Quaker, the first settler where is now Phoenixville, had made his home on the north bank of the French Creek near its mouth. Francis Buckwalter, a Swiss Mennoriite, had taken up the extensive meadows in the great bend of the Schuylkill at what is called the Black Rock. Daniel Walker lived where the Valley Creek empties into the river and there, having learned to make iron at Coventry, he erected the forge to become so cele- brated in the War of the Revolution. James Hamer, a Quaker, occupied the high ground back of the present vil- lage of Mont Clare. These persons together with Thomas Rees, Robert Thomas, Jonas Potts and Thomas Coates (ob- scure), united with Joseph Richardson in a petition Dec. 3, 1722, to the Court of Quarter Sessions in Philadelphia, as "Inhabitants of Oletheho and the neighboring parts." They set forth that " there are already many families settled in the affbresaid place called Oletheho upon Scoolkill side and probably severall more to settle in and about the same place," that " there is a Mill put up at the French Creeks mouth or Indiantown fiord"; that " there is no certaine Road laid out from thence towards the city of Philadelphia" and they asked the court to order "a Kings Road or Cart way through the various Hills and ups and downs of the afore- mentioned place to wit, from the Indian town ffbord to the next established Kings Road that will suit best the inhabi- tants of Oletheho to the said city of Philadelphia." The court granted the petition and appointed William Harmer, the ancestor of the Revolutionary general Josiah Harmar, Joseph Richardson, Abraham Dawes, Meredith David and Andrew Robeson, who had been a Provincial Councillor, who had a mill on the Wissahickon, and who is buried at Manatawny, a jury to lay out the road, and at their head placed Hendrick Pannebecker, the Dutch Patroon, living on the Skippack, where he owned large tracts of land and where eleven years later he bought Bebber's Township. The court likewise appointed Joseph Richardson and Robert Thomas "overseers of ye above road." As a surveyor,
46 Joseph Richardson's Road.
Pannebecker ran the lines for many of the manors of the Penns, and he laid out the road according to the following courses and distances, covering an extent of eleven and three-fortieth miles : " we Began at a white Oak standing in the King's high Road near ye Plantation of Joseph Samuel on Plymouth Road, then North seventy-five degrees westerly one hundred and Twenty perches then North forty-five de- grees westerly seventy perches. Then North sixty-four de- grees westerly three hundred and eighty-four Perches Then north seventy-two Degrees westerly two hundred and Thirty- four perches. Then north Ninety-one Degrees westerly fifty- two Perches Then North sixty-two Degrees westerly fourty- two Perches. Then North Eighty-two Degrees westerly sixty-eight perches then North seventy-five degrees westerly one hundred and fourty-Perches Then North sixty-five de- grees westerly fourty Perches Then North fifty-eight degrees Westerly twenty-eight Perches Then North fourty-four de- grees westerly fifty-eight perches Then north fourty-four degrees westerly fifty-eight perches Then north fourty-nine degrees west Twenty-six perches Then North sixty-seven Degrees westerly seventy-eight Perches Then North sev- enty-three degrees westerly one hundred Thirty-eight perches Then North sixty-five degrees easterly Thirty-eight perches Then North fifty-seven Degrees westerly Three hundred fourty-six perches Then North sixty-four Degrees westerly sixty-six perches Then North seventy-four De- grees westerly Ninety-two perches Then North seventy-six degrees westerly eighty-four perches Then north Eighty Degrees westerly Two hundred and Twenty-perches. Then North seventy Degrees westerly fourty-eight perches Then North sixty-five Degrees Westerly two hundred and twenty perches Then North eighty-five Degrees westerly one hundred and sixty-four perches Then North Sixty Degrees westerly sixty-six perches to Perqueoming Creek Then North seventy Degrees westerly five hundred and Twenty Perches Then north Ten Degrees East one hundred and seventy-six perches Then North five degrees East one hun-
Joseph Richardson's Road. 47
dred and Thirty Perches to the Indian ford in Schuilkill." The report was made to the court and approved in the fol- lowing March. Then came trouble. It is much easier to take bearings and carry a chain than it is to cut down oak and hickory and level hills. What public improvement was ever proposed, without arousing the opposition of those who are disturbed by its progress ? Further down the river Isaac Norria had bought the manor of Williamstadt, con- taining ten thousand acres of land and it had been divided into lots. The proposed road would cross this manor and he did not want his land taken for any such purpose. There was no occasion for a road anyhow. Many people who in- terfere with their neighbors by asking for roads are mere squatters without any real right, and they deserve no con- sideration. There was another road which ran through his property by Edward Lane's to Manatawny, and this would be almost parallel. Why should there be two roads through the country ? Happily for us, he wrote down at the time the tale of his woes. Otherwise the events we are narrat- ing would have been buried in oblivion. On the 8th of November of 1725, Norris at the request of Richardson, left his home in the city and journeyed to his manor that he might go over the road as it was laid out " if they must have one there abt," and suggest whatever changes in the route might be necessary. Richardson and Pannebecker met him in the woods. There were others in the party, but who they were we are not told. However, we know from an old draft preserved in the library of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, copied from one made in 1704, that on this occasion Pannebecker took them to a line tree in the manor of Williamstadt marked " W. P.," from which it may be inferred that he had early surveyed that manor per- haps in the company of Penn himself. They started upon the line following the courses as shown by Pannebecker's compass and for a time all went smoothly, although Norris found one of his trees girdled and several others cut. Presently they came to within about sixty perches of a white
48 Joseph Richardson's Road.
oak, where Norris saw that the ground was of just the kind suitable for a road and he proposed to them to go that way and then they might cross the next lot " O as it pleased ym." Richardson had a different view. The ground about that white oak did not impress him favorably and " in his weak unmanerly way * * * he called ye Surveyor off." His interference stopped the whole business. Thereupon, Norris took out his own " circumferenter" and determined to run up to that particular white oak. They all followed, but nothing more could be accomplished on that day. Some- where they spent the night all together, perhaps in some house, but because of what must have been a dearth of ac- commodations, more probably in the woods. Norris wrote on the 9th, " after much talk last night we essayed an ac- comodation," but still he was far from content. When he found a marked poplar on the bank of the Schuylkill he said : " Tis a blind line & I suppose run by ffairman to cut of a part of my land." Up the river they found a corner tree " cald by John Taylor a dog tree but by some of ye people now with me calld a sort of gum, by others thought a kind of elm." While they may have understood survey- ing, they were certainly unlearned in botany. Norris says they followed the courses and measured the distances of the proposed road " to Indn Creek," and " up ye hill," and to the spring "on ye opposite side," but he concluded with evident dissatisfaction: "these are ye courses taken from Pannebecker but they are wrong either in course or dis- tances or both for they will not come right by protraction." Nearly two years later, on the 5th of 4th Month, 1727, he presented a petition to the court. This petition stated that he "is informed a Road was lately granted and said or pre- tended to be laid out leading from Plymouth Township to Perqueoming Creek wch runs aslant more than four miles through his land commonly called the Manor of Wm Stadt obliquely cutting the lines of the severall lotts laid out many years before in the sd Mannor very injuriously"; that he "had not ye least notice or knowledge either of the petition
Joseph Richardson's Road. 49
grant or laying out the sd Road"; (oh ! friend Isaac Nome). And he asked that six housekeepers be directed to ascertain whether there was any occasion for the road at all and if so, to locate it in places causing the least inconvenience. He declared that he had met with both "abuse and ill treat- ment." The court appointed a jury of review but they too proved obdurate. Among the papers of Norris, is one drawn up by him giving the courses and distances precisely as they had been found by Pannebecker in 1722, endorsed " Jos. Richardson's Road through ye Mannor" and on which he wrote March 27, 1729,° found the marked trees crooked as they pleased to choose ye ground."
The next year on the 7th of September, 1730, James Hamer in behalf of himself and the inhabitants of Olyer- theho (sic), sent a petition to the Court. In it he says that in 1722, they had been granted a road from Plymouth, " through Isaac Norriss Lotts to the upper Indian Town ford upon Schuylkill," but that " Since Sd Road was laid out it hath caused some uneasiness in Isaac Norris," so that they could not have it cut through his land though "they have cleared it below & above." " In order that amity and love may abound and this controversy be ended," he asked that an impartial jury be appointed to view the road "be- ginning at a white oak at the Side of sd Norriss Mill Race and thence through his Land to ye cleared Road." This euggestion, evidently intended as a proposition to make the road satisfactory to him in BO far as it affected his own land, was still not sufficiently soothing. On the back of his copy of this paper he wrote : " James Hamer's Petition — Joseph Richardson's dictation," which shows that he thought Richardson continued to be a disturbing influence. It is his final comment, and here our evidence and the story of an old dispute both come to an end. The road may be found on Scull's map of 1759, connecting Providence Meet- ing with Plymouth Meeting. In modern description it runs from Phoenixville by the hamlet of the Green Tree to the Perkiomen at Oaks Station, and thence through Audubon, VOL. xxxv.-
50 Joseph Richardson's Road.
Jefferson ville, and Norristown, of which it became the main street, on to Plymouth. The Schuylkill Valley Trolley Company now runs its cars where Norris found only white oaks, and trees which may have been either gum, or elm, or dogwood. Could he have foreseen that the only preserva- tion of the name of Morris on the map of Pennsylvania is where the thriving and populous borough of Norristown grew up along Joseph Richardson's Road, he would doubt- less have been more content and been on better terms with his neighbor. How often it happens in the affairs of men that that to which they most object turns out to be to their advantage.
SIC ITUR AD ASTRA
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The First Balloon Hoax. 51
THE FIEST BALLOON HOAX.
BY JOSEPH JACKSON.
PARADOXICALLY as it may appear, the " first balloon ascen- sion in this country " never occurred. This statement naturally requires explanation. What is intended to be conveyed by the sentence is that the balloon ascension, which is regarded as having taken place in Philadelphia on December 28, 1783, is purely mythical.
The statement originally published in a foreign news- paper bears every evidence of having been constructed as a hoax by some resident of Philadelphia, who appeared to believe that when discoveries were being made in aero- nautics in France, Philadelphia, with her famed Philosoph- ical Society, should not be found backward.
That this story was a hoax, was discovered by the writer only when he attempted to supplement the generally ac- cepted account of the ascent with fuller particulars. At the Philosophical Society in Philadelphia, it was found that although two members of that eminent association were mentioned as being leading spirits in the famous ascent, there was absolutely no record of the experiment. As will be apparent later, there was a dearth of contemporary evi- dence elsewhere and the conclusion was necessarily arrived at that the ascension could not have taken place at the time or in the manner stated in an account that is to be found to this day in some of the most authoritative works of reference.
With this evidence before one, it is necessary to conclude that the first ascent of a balloon in this country did not occur until July 17, 1784. This, so far as the aeronaut was concerned, was unsuccessful, for, before the aerostat had risen many feet above the ground, Peter Games, an amateur balloonist, of Baltimore, was thrown from the basket, but
52 The First Balloon Hoax.
the hot-air bag arose to a great height. The first real ascension was performed by Blanchard, a French aeronaut, in Philadelphia, in January, 1793, and both of these events are historic facts.
Blanchard, who came to this city in JDecember, 1792, found a hearty response to his request for patronage, and foremost among his patrons was President Washington, who took a lively and evidently very real interest in the experi- ment. On January 9, 1793, the subscribers to the fund which made the ascension possible, and which amounted to over $2000, assembled in the yard of the old Walnut Street Prison at Sixth and Walnut Streets. Washington, next to the aeronaut, was the most prominent figure in the crowd. They watched the great aerostat in which Blanchard already had made ascensions in Europe, as it was filled with hydro- gen gas, and when all was ready and Blanchard walked over to the President to inform him of the fact, Washington handed him a passport so that persons who never had seen a balloon would treat the aeronaut with consideration. Doctor Rush and Doctor Wistar took the greatest interest in the ascension, and it was at their request that Blanchard made numerous observations while in the air.
Blanchard reached a height of 5812 feet, and after being in the air for 46 minutes, descended without accident in Deptford Township, Gloucester County, New Jersey. He hastened back to Philadelphia, and immediately presented himself to the President at the Executive Mansion, then on Market Street west of Fifth. Blanchard presented a small flag which had adorned his balloon to President Washington, who warmly congratulated the daring balloonist.
On the authority of numerous histories of aeronautics it has been customary to credit David Rittenhouse, the astron- omer, and Francis Hopkinson, patriot, lawyer, scientist and satirist, with having contrived the first balloon ascension on this continent, within a few months after the success of Charles's first voyage through the air in France. It can now, after one hundred and twenty-six years, be asserted
The First Balloon Hoax. 53
that the whole narrative was a hoax, which through some strange fatality, has been impenetrated by later writers on the subject.
There is every internal evidence that the hoax was per- petrated by a resident of Philadelphia, for it bears on its face the authorship of a person who was familiar, not only with the city, but in a small way at least, with the men of promi- nence here. It was mainly, if not entirely, intended for European consumption, and if the hoax ever reached Phila- delphia in the period in which it was published, it is not a matter of record that any attention was paid to it. If the story of this truly remarkable balloon ascension ever was read there in those times, evidently no person took the trouble to correct it.
Proving that the ascension never took place does not take away from Philadelphia the honor of being the first city in the United States to encourage aeronautics, for there was a genuine ascent some months later which, as has been remarked, is of record.
The original story seems to have appeared in a Paris journal, named the Journal de Paris. In its issue for May 13, 1784, the following detailed account of the phantom ascent was printed :
PHILADELPHIA, Dec. 29, 1783. — No sooner was the extraordinary discovery of M. Mortgolfier known here, about a month ago, than a similar experiment was attempted, not, indeed, on so large a scale, for want of means, and this circumstance has led us to perhaps the happiest application of this phenomena. A man raised himself to a height of ninety-seven English feet, and came down again, but with too much ease.
Messrs Rittenhouse and Hopkins began their experiments with bladders, and then with somewhat larger machines. They joined several together, and fastened them around a cage into which they put several animals. The whole ascended, and was drawn down again with a rope.
The next day, which was yesterday, a man offered to get into the cage provided the rope was not let go. He rose about fifteen feet and would not suffer himself to go higher.
James Wilcox, a carpenter, engaged to go in it for a little money. He rose twenty feet or upwards before he made a signal to be drawn down.
54 The First Balloon Hoax.
He then took instructions from Messrs. Rittenhouse and Hopkins, and after several repititions on the ground, consented to have the rope cut for fifty dollars. Dr. Jaune, the principal medical person in the city, attended in case of accident.
The crowd was incredible and shouted after they saw Wilcox rise crowded in the cage surrounded by forty-seven balloons fastened to it with astonishing coolness, nodding his head to express his satisfaction and composure. After all, he could not rise above ninety-seven feet, ascending to the measures taken by the two other gentlemen of the Philosophical Academy. He was at least five minutes in the air, but perceiving the wind to blow from the east and drive him towards the Schuylkill river he was frightened and agreeable to his instructions made several incisions with a knife in three of the balloons. This was not sufficient, though we saw him descend a little. He pierced three more, and seeing the machine not come down, his fear increased. He cut five more in the greatest haste and unfortunately all on the same side. He was then seen to tack about, and as he had slid down he fell on a fence on the edge of a ditch. Dr. Jaune ran up and found the poor man had sprained his wrist, but received no other injury. He was taken care of, a new machine put in, and it is hoped it will be more complete.
There is a reminder of Gilbert's opera " The Mikado," in the way the unconvincing narrative is bolstered up with delicate touches intended to make for verity, about " nod- ding his head," and having " Dr. Jaune, the principal medical person " on hand in case of accident. There is something admirable in the imagination of the author, who conceived the fullest details, including those of little consequence, even had the yarn been true, which it was not.
The ditch which was protected by a fence, also was a fine, but unlikely touch, for near the Schuylkill River — and from the narrative the alleged ascension must have occurred on the east side of that stream — there were no fences in the year 1783. It must be understood to have taken place within the old city limits, for in those days outside the boundaries always was alluded to as near the city, a phrase that sometimes confuses the historian or antiquary.
Prom the narrative one is justified in translating Hopkins as Hopkinson, if we are to believe the feat was engineered by two members of the Philosophical Society. The name
The First Balloon Hoax. 55
of this society, it will be noticed, is given as the Philosoph- ical Academy of Philadelphia, which was an institution that never existed. There wa« no physician in Philadelphia named Jaune in 1783. It is scarcely conceivable that the celebrated Dr. Kuhn was intended. And the carpenter, James Wilcox, also comes near to being a genuine name in Philadelphia at the time. The Directory for 1785 mentions three of the family named John, but unfortunately fails to give the occupation of any of them.
According to the narrative, the event must have attracted a great concourse of persons. It even mentions the crowd to which the daring Wilcox nodded his head. Yet the newspapers of the time are silent on the alleged ascent. Bittenhouse, who was the second president of the Philo- sophical Society, never appears to have made any reference to the experiment, although in the Transactions of the So- ciety he is found to have contributed several important papers on his favorite study, astronomy.
In the Life of Rittenhouse by his son-in-law, Dr. Barton, there is unusual silence on an experiment so important that it must have been the pioneer in the New World, if it occurred. Doctor Barton fails to mention his father-in-law's alleged connection with it. Neither is the event mentioned in the Diary of Jacob Hiltshimer, who, however, does not neglect to mention Blanchard's ascent, ten years later. There were other diarists who were keeping journals in Philadelphia at the time, and although these, generally speaking, are gossipy, they all are silent on this wonderful scientific and popular event.
Even the journals of the Philosophical Society do not refer to the alleged ascension, although its president is pro- claimed to be the leader of the experiment. In fact, there is a desert of silence on the subject on all sides. Surely, some one, in addition to the alleged correspondent of the Paris Journal, would have broken faith and have given the world for all time the true facts of such an historic event as this, if it had occurred, must have been. Yet there is nothing.
56 The First Balloon Hoax.
The tale appears to have been more familiar in England and France than it was in this country, and it is only within the last half century that the story has been current here. No great attention ever has been paid to it. It has been taken as a matter of course, where it has excited any interest at all. In recent times the story seems to have been given currency by Hatton Tumor's " Astra Castra," a vast com- pendium of information and lore, on the subject of aero- nautics from mythological times to the year 1865, when the book was published.
In " Astra Castra," the story, very much curtailed, is given as a matter of fact, and even the Ninth Edition of the " Encyclopaedia Britannica " repeats the story. As both are substantially the same, that from the " Encyclopaedia " may be produced here and answer for both. It will be noted that in this version of the story we are informed that the balloons were filled with hydrogen. This may have been a gratuity of Mr. Tumor.
It is proper here to state that researches on the use of gas for inflating balloons seem to have been carried on in Philadelphia nearly simul- taneously with the experiments of the Montgolfiers. When the news of the latter reached America, Messrs. Rittenhouse and Hopkins, members of the Philosophical Academy of Philadelphia, constructed a machine consisting of forty-seven hydrogen gas balloons, attached to a car or cage. After several preliminary experiments in which animals were let up to a certain height by a rope, a carpenter, one James Wilcox, was induced to enter the car for a small sum of money ; the ropes were cut and he remained up in the air about ten minutes, and only effected his descent by making incisions in a number of the balloons, through fear of falling into the river, which he was approaching.
It will be noted the writer in the "Encyclopaedia" has improved on the original story. He asserts the aeronaut was in the air ten minutes. The original story recites that he was aloft at least five minutes, when he discovered he was drifting toward the river, and how much longer he was in making his descent the reader is left to imagine.
It is not possible to say with any certainty who was the author of this, the first balloon hoax, which, while not so
The First Balloon Hoax. 57
extensive as the later one by Poe and lacking in some of its dramatic features, equalled, if it did not excel that story by the fact that it continued to deceive for the last one hundred and twenty-six years.
If the author was a Philadelphian, he must have pur- posely invented the names for his characters. Francis Hop- kinson himself might be mentioned as one who might have perpetrated the hoax, and this view would be strengthened by making his name as Hopkins. The celebrated practical joker, Colonel Thomas Forrest, also might have been the inventor if the story really went out from Philadelphia. On the other hand the story lies under some suspicion of having been concocted in England by some one who had been a resident of Philadelphia. In this case Isaac Hunt, the father of Leigh Hunt, might be regarded as the author. But all of these are the merest conjectures and have nothing more to substantiate them than has the hoax itself.
The idea of having forty-seven balloons filled with hy- drogen gas points to one conclusion : it must have been the invention of a man who never had seen a balloon, but who had seen in the London Magazine, an engraving published about this time, of Lana's design for a balloon. Lana's balloon was not intended to be inflated, but the spheres were to be composed of thin, strong, hollow metal, exhausted of air, leaving a vacuum, which the inventor, not counting upon the pressure of the atmosphere, believed would raise a person to a considerable height. It now is known that such immense hollow metal globes — they were to have been twenty feet in diameter — from which the air had been exhausted, would be crushed by the pressure of the atmos- phere. Lana's project was given to the world in 1670, when the barometer was not in general use, and may have been unknown to him.
All evidence points to the author having been a Phila- delphian who desired to play a joke upon the Europeans. The author was, as has been related, little acquainted with the real appearance of a balloon, and was a person who
58 The First Balloon Hoax.
must have had little scientific qualifications, which would indicate that Hopkinson should be acquitted of the author- ship. If, as seems probable, the hoax was prepared in Philadelphia, Hunt also, would be acquitted, for before April, or even March, 1784, a month or two before the letter appeared, many persons in England were familiar with the shape and appearance of balloons and actually had seen one. Such persons scarcely would have given thought to an aerial machine having forty-seven balloons as an ascen- sive force. It also is inconceivable that any scientist would have advocated such a machine in view of the tremendous difficulty of filling and managing forty-seven balloons, even small ones.
Having eliminated two of the persons who were capable of having perpetrated a hoax, it might be well to examine the evidence that points to the remaining person who has been mentioned as possibly guilty. This is Colonel Thomas Forrest. Readers of " Watson's Annals " need not be told that he was regarded as a practical joker. He also was the author of a comic opera called " The Disappointment," which so satirized some of the " Characters " in Philadelphia at the time, as well as having a realistic touch that scarcely could be presented even to an Eighteenth century audience, that after it had been announced for production in the old South wark Theatre in 1767, it was withdrawn. It was printed, however, and in 1796 another edition with the text considerably enlarged was issued. Neither of these pro- ductions bore the name of the real author, but went out into the world as the work of Andrew Barton. Forrest, therefore, was a person who was regarded as a playful sort of man by the persons who knew him ; as a practical joker and as a satirist. That he may be the author of the Balloon Hoax seems plausible, although there is no direct evidence connecting him with the story.
All that can be proved at this time, is that the ascension did not take place, and that the account of the first balloon ascension in America was a hoax.
General Muhlenberg's Orderly Boole, 1777. ' 59
ORDERLY BOOK OF GEN. JOHN PETER GABRIEL MUHLENBERG, MARCH 26-DECEMBER 20, 1777.
(Continued from Vol. xxxiv., page 477.)
G. 0. HEAD QUARTERS, Sepr 27th, 1777
Major Gen1 for tomorrow Green
Brigadr Con way
Field Officers . . Col. Cook & L1 Col. Nevill
Brigade Major Day
Field Officers for Piquet from 3d Maryland Regfc
John White Esqr is appointed Volunteer Aid du Camp to Gen1 Sullivan and is to be respected as such. L* Col. Hendricks is appointed to the Rank of Col. to the lsi Vir- ginia Reg* in the Room of Col. Read Deceas'd. Major Syms of the 13th Virga Reg' to be L* Col. of the 6th in the room of Col. Hendricks promoted. Cap4 Cambel to be Major in the 13th Virg* Reg1 in the Room of Major Syms promoted. The Brigadiers or Officers Commanding Bri- gades are to parade their respective Brigades at 8 o'clock tomorrow morning and under their own Eyes have exact Returns made of the Officers and men present on the Grounds, which returns they are immediately afterwards to transmit to the Adj1 Gen1 such of their officers as are absent and not on Duty, they are as speedily as possible to order to join their Corps. And if any such Officers got taken by the Enemy, they will not be exchang'd. Three parties of 150 each are to parade tomorrow morning at Sun rise, at the park of Artillery with One Days prov80" Cook'd but have their Packs at their Quarters, Major Innis, Major Sneed <fe Major Howell each to Command one of the Parties.
60 General Mulileriberg's Orderly Book, 1777.
G. O. HEAD QUARTERS Sepr 30th 1777
Major Gen1 for tomorrow . . Ld Sterling
Brigadr Foreman
Field Offiers Col. Syms . Major Bloomfield
Brigade Major Johnson
Field Officer for Piquet . . L* Col. Irvine
A Flag will go to the Enemy's Lines tomorrow morning all persons who have anything to send in, are to have them ready at Head Quarters by 7 o'clock in the morning.
One Surgeon's Mate from each Division who can be best spared is to go to Bethlehem forthwith to bring down to the Army the Medicine Chests of their respective Divisions.
One Hundred and fifty men from Gen1 Sullivans, Greens, Stephen's, and Ld Sterling's Divisions and Gen1 Nash's Brigade are to be selected this Day and a like proportion from the other Brigades those men are always to Carry their axes with them to march with the Piquets when the Army moves to prepare Timber for and repair the Roads, when arrived at the new Encampment are to Cut firewood for their respective Brigades. The Brig6 Qr Masters are constantly to go with those men and direct them in the Business above mentioned. For these Services the Axe Men are to be excus'd from all Guards and other ordinary Duty, but when an action is expected they are to deliver their Axes to the Brig6 Masters who are to be accountable for the Axes of their Brigades, and join in their several Corps when on Duty as axe men, they are always to Carry their Arms with them. A list of their names is without delay is to be given to the Brigade Qr Master by their res- pective Brigade Majors.
Advertisement.
Gen1 Green lost at New Hanover Camp a Brass Pistol both stock & Barrel with 2 Capital Letters, on the Stock H. K any person who has found it and will return it to the Gen1 will receive 20 Dollars reward.
General Muhlenberg's Orderly Boole, 1777. 61
An Orderly Horse from each Reg* of Horse to attend daily at Head Quarters.
G. 0. HEAD QUARTERS, SKIPPACK, Oct' 1st 1777
Major Gen1 for tomorrow . . . Stephens
Brigadier Nash
Field Officers . Col. Dayton Major Smith
Brigade Major Williams
For Piquet Major Hupper
The Commr in Chief approves the following Sentences of a Gen1 Court Martial held Sepr 28th whereof Col. Wood was President. Viz1 L' Rob' Cragg of Col. Hazen's Reg1 charg'd with repeated disobedience of Orders acquitted. Adjut* Kincade acting Brigade Major to Gen1 Scott charg'd with not bringing his Piquets on the ground in Proper Time, acquitted.
Detail as Ordered Yesterday.
Whenever a field Officer is named for an Duty and he is Sick or absent, the Brigade major of the Brigade to which such Officer belongs is to warn another in his Stead and report his name to the Adj* Gen1. When Aid du Camps go from Camp with their Major Gen? A Brigade Major of the Division is to be notified thereof and directed to attend at Head Quarters for Orders at Orderly Time.
The Brigade Quarter Masters are to apply to the Q. M. G. for their Quota of Axes for the purpose mentioned in yester- days Orders, no more Fences to be burned in future, on any pretence whatever if unavoidable necessity does not compel us to it, license must first be obtained from the Commr in Chief.
The Pay Master of Regt8 and Corps are to bring in their pay Rolls for the Month of August properly examin'd & certified, that Warrants may be given for payment.
After Orders.
The whole Army are to strike Tents tomorrow morning at 8 o'clock and get ready to march, at Nine the March is to
G2 General Mulileribergs Orderly Book, 1777.
begin, Gen1 Sullivan's Division leading followed by Lincoln's, McDougalls, Greens, these form the first Line, then the Park of Artillery, then the 2d Line in this Order. Sterling's Division, hash's, Stephen's, Gen1 Sullivans to beat a march as a signal for marching, the beat to be Continued by the others successively, the whole are to encamp on the new ground in the same order. Gen1 Armstrong is to move at the same time by the shortest route to the right of the First Line, and Gen1 Smallwood and Gen1 Foreman to the left of the first Line, on the Ground the Q. M. G. will point out, the waggons to go in the Rear of the Army in the order of the Brigade to which they belong all the Tent Waggons first.
The Brigd Quarter Masters are to see that Vaults be dug immediately upon the Army's arrival on its own Ground, and any Soldiers caught easing himself elsewhere is instantly to be made prisoner and punishd by Order of a Reg1 Court Martial. The Brigade Qr Masters are without fail to see all Offal buried every morning and are to apply to their Bri- gades for men for that purpose. Reg1 or Brigade Qr Masters failing in the duties here required of them are forthwith to be arrested, some person from each distinct Body or Bri- gade of Militia is to attend daily at Head Quarters for orders at noon.
Each Brigade Qr Master is to make an immediate return of the number of Baggage Waggons in his Brigade to the Q. M. G. An officer from each Brigade is to remain till the Troops have marched off then for to make search and bring on all Stragglers.
G. O. HEAD QUARTERS Oct.r 2d 1777
Major Gen1 for to-morrow . Sullivan Brigadier . . . . . . McDougall
Field Officers Col. Chambers L* Col. Craig
Brigade Major Mcholls
Field Officer for Piquet Major Benezet
Lost yesterday a Brass Barrel pistol, brass mounted, the words Jones, Cor nhill, London on the Barrel and on the Lock.
General Muhlenberg's Orderly Boole, 1777. 63
B. O. Oct'. 3d 1777
Parole Hampton. C. Sign, Harlem, Hanover
The Commg Officers of Regts are to see that their men have three Days Provisions Cook'd (this day included) their men are likewise to be furnish'd with 40 Rounds of Cart- ridges pr Man their gun, Flints &c. in the best order.
G. O. HEAD QUARTERS. Octr. 3d 1777
Twenty men from each Brigade who are not fit to endure the Fatigues of a March either for want of Shoes or other- wise with a Sub. from each Brigade, to parade at the Park of Artillery at 5 o'clock this afternoon. Two field Officers will be there to take the Command of them who will re- ceive their instructions from the Major Gen1 of the Day. Three empty waggons from each .Brigade with good horses to parade in the Road in rear of the 2d Line and move on in the rear when the Army marches.
The whole Army to be under arms this evening at 6 o'clock they are to leave their packs, Blankets and every- thing except arms, accoutrements ammunition and provi- sion they are to take their provision in their Habersacks, such as have not Habersacks are to take their provision in their Pockets, or in such other manner as may be most Convenient. All the Pioneers of each Reg' & Division who are fit to march are to move in front of their respective Di- visions with all the Axes they can muster.
TIMY PICKERING ADJT GENL
G. 0. HEAD QUARTERS Octr 5th 1777
Major Gen1 for this Day L* Sterling
Brigadier Scott
Field Officers 1 of Col. McDougals Brigade and Major For Piquet Major Crawford
Four Hundred men for Piquet to parade precisely at 6 o'clock at the Park of Artillery.
64 General Muhlenberg's Orderly Book, 1777.
After Orders.
The Officers commanding Regt8 are to make returns of the Cartridges wanting to compleat their men to 40 Rounds pf Man and draw the materials for making them at the Park of Artillery early tomorrow morning. One attentive officer from each Reg4 is to be present and superintend the making of the cartridges for the Reg1 and see that they are well made up and the materials not wasted. The Arms to be clean'd and put in good order immediately, such as are charg'd and cannot be drawn are to be discharged at noon tomorrow under the direction of their Officers. Each Reg' is to draw 12 cartridges a Man ready made at the Park of Artillery besides the above materials.
Small parties of Horse are tomorrow morning to be sent up the different Roads above the Present encampment of the Army as much as 10 Miles in order to stop all Soldiers and turn them back to the Army.
All the Detachments of Horse are to be Collected as soon as possible to one place as near as may be to the Army, except the two parties under Capf Lee and Craig.
Returns as exact as possible are to be made of the killed wounded and missing in the action of yesterday, and deliv- er'd to the Commrin Chief at 4 o'clock tomorrow afternoon, the Brig' Major will be punctual in this matter and where there is no Brigade Major, the Brigadr or Officers command- ing Brigades are without delay to appoint Persons to do their Duty one Set of Columns are to shew the kill'd of the different Ranks, 2d the wounded and a third set of columns the missing.
The Commr in Chief returns his thanks to the gen18 and other Officers and Men Concern'd yesterday in the attack on the enemy's left wing for the Spirit and bravery shewn in driving the Enemy from Field to Field and altho' an unfortunate Fog joined with the Smoke prevent'd the dif- ferent Brigades seeing and supporting each other, or some- times even distinguishing their Fire from the Enemy's and from some other Causes, which as yet cannot be well ac-
General Muhleriberg's Orderly Boole, 1777. 65
counted for, they finally retreated, they nevertheless see that the Enemy are not proof against a vigorous attack and may be put to flight when boldly push'd. This they will remember and assure themselves that on the next Occasion by a proper exertion of the Powers which God has given them and inspired by the Cause of Freedom in which they are engaged they will be victorious.
The Commr in Chief not seeing the Engagement wth the Enemy's right wing, desires the Gen1 Officers who Com- manded there, to thank those Officers and Men who be- hav'd with becoming bravery, and those of either Wing who behav'd otherwise to be reported.
Detail for Piquet the same as last settled, they are to Parade at 11 o'clock in the Forenoon and afterwards at 8 o'clock as usual.
Major Gen1 tomorrow .... Stephens
Brigadier Muhlenburg
Field Officers . Col. Clark and Col. Connor
Brigade Major Peers
For Piquet Major Miller
HEAD QUARTERS Octr 6th 1777 Parole Fredricksburgh C. Sign Halifax, Frankfort
Major Gen1 for tomorrow . . • Sullivan
Brigadier Conway
Field Officers Col. Richardson L' Col. Park
Brigade Major Day
For Piquet Major Ball
The Commanding Officers of Regts are without delay to send to the provost for such of their men as have been tried and their Sentence publish'd. The Battalion of Militia from Virginia Commandd by Col. Rumney are to be attached to and to do Duty with Gen1 Scotts' Brigade. Brigr Gen1 Puliske will make return of the Horse as soon as possible. A pair of brass mounted Pistols with white metal locks, VOL. xxxv. — 5
66 General Mulilenberg's Orderly Book, 1777.
were taken from Gen1 Muhlenburgs Horse at Head Quars 20 Dollars reward will be given to any person who will bring them to him and no Questions ask'd. A Pistol with 2 Brass barrels was lost by Cap1 Henry Lee of the light Horse, his Cypher, (H. L.) was on the Thumb piece 20 Dollars will be given to the Person who will bring it to him.
John Lawrence Esqr who was appointed on the 6th of Sepr Extra Aid du Camp to the Commr in Chief, is now appointed Aid du Camp to him, and is to be obey'd and respected as Such.
Thomas Mullins Esqr appointed the 3d ins4 to act as Bri- gade Major to Gen1 Conway, is now for his Gallant Be- haviour on the 4th ins* appointed Brigade Major to Gen1 Conway and is to be obey'd & respected as such.
The Commanding Officers of Corps are every morning to report the Strength of them to the Brig" or Officers Commanding Brigades that it may be known daily what Stragglers have join'd. Buckshot are to be put into all the cartridges which are hereafter to be made.
D. 0. CAMP at PERKIOMING Octr 7th 1777
The Gen1 returns his sincere thanks to the Officers & Soldiers in general of his Division for their behaviour on the Action at German Town, nevertheless he has the morti- fication to hear some few behave'd ill, who are arrested and reported to his Excell7. The Gen1 has the highest confi- dence in the Troops of his Division and in the Spirit and good Conduct of the Officers. He from the best infor- mation has the mortification to assure the Troops they fled from Victory, and he wishes most ardently, that the Troops may be convinced of the necessity of retreating and rallying briskly, and that a partial Retreat, to change a position is often necessary and therefore a Particular Retreat is not to be Considered general, without the order is such. Not- withstanding the Fog depriv'd us of the Opportunity of seeing how to Conduct our near approache, at the Enemy's confusion and giving them a Complete route, which beyond
General Muliletiberg's Orderly Book, 1777. (57
a Doubt we should have done, if the Weather had been Clear, nevertheless he has the satisfaction to assure the Troops, the Enemy suffer'd very severely.
The Arms and Ammunition are to be put in good order as soon as possible and everything got in readiness for
Attack and defence.
K GREEN M. Gen1.
G. O. HEAD QUARTERS Octr 7th 1777
Major Gen1 for tomorrow . . . Green
Brigadier Smallwood
Field Officers L* Col Butler Major Vaughan
Brigade Major Platts
For Piquet Major Nichols
The State Reg1 from Virginia to supply the place of the 9th Reg* of Virgin* in Muhlenburgh's Brigade, and do Duty there till further orders. John Farndon of Col. Hartley's Reg1 found guilty of the crime of Desertion and Sentenc'd by the Gen1 Court Martial held the 25th of Sepr last to suffer Death, is to be executed tomorrow at 12 o'clock. The situ- ation of the Army frequently not admitting of the regular performance of Divine Service on Sundays the Chaplains of the Army are forthwith to meet together and agree upon some method of performing it at other Times which method they will make known to the Commr in Chief. Divers Swords as well as other things have lately been stolen from Officers by Soldiers. Officers are requested to take notice of such things seen in the possession of their men and have them taken care of & advertis'd.
Taken from Head quarters on the 4th ins* about Sunset a pair of neat silver mounted pistols with Dog heads & on the thumb piece the Letters C. G. in a Cypher whoever will bring them to Head Quarters shall receive 20 Dollars and no Questions Ask'd.
The Pay Master Gen1 is at Gen1 Conways Quarters at Thetwyler's Mills where he will attend the Business of his Department.
68 General Muhleriberg's Orderly Book, 1777.
G. 0. HEAD QUARTERS 8th October 1777
The Troops to March at 8 o'clock this morning by the left in this Order. 1st Gen1 Smallwoods Militia 2d Gen1 Green's 3d Stephens, 4th McDougal 5th Nash, 6th Park of Artillery, 7th Wayne 8th Sullivan 9th Ld Sterling, 10th Arm- strongs Militia 11th Tent "Waggons in the order of the Troops to which they belong then the Commissaries Wag- gons in the same Order, then the spare Ammunition Wag- gons, then the Q. M. G.
A Sub and 12 Men of each Brigade to stay on the Ground till the Troops have march'd off to collect and bring on all Stragglers.
The Brigade Majors are to make returns tomorrow of the number of Arms and Accoutrements wanting in the sev- eral Regt8 of their Brigades in order to their being Corn- pleated without delay, they are also at the same time to make returns of the number of Tin Cannisters now in the Brigades.
The Battalion of Militia from Yirga Commanded by Major Pickett are to be attached and do Duty with Gen1 Woodford's brigade.
The Men's pouches are to be well greas'd at least once a week, especially that part of the Flap which immediately covers the Cartridges, the better to preserve them from in- injury in Case of Rain. The Commanding Officers of Corps will pay attention to this matter.
The Commanding Officers of Corps are immediately to select the most suitable of their Men and set them to mak- ing Moccusins for their Corps. The Commissaries are to order the Skins of the heads and Legs of Bullocks taken off and applied tto that use, so far as they will go. The Commissaries are also to issue the Raw Hides for the pur- pose upon the Returns of the Officers Commanding Corps.
John Farndon of Hartley's Reg* sentenc'd to suffer death for the Crime of Desertion to the Enemy and was to have been executed this day is to be executed tomorrow at 12 o'clock. A detachment of 60 men from each Brigade is to
General Muhlenberg's Orderly Boole, 1777. 69
parade at the Park of Artillery at that time to attend the Execution.
Advertisement.
Lost accidentally at the Commencem1 of the Action of the 4th Inst. a Silver Mounted Screw Barrel Pistol, on the Top of the Breach on a Ferril of Silver is a Cypher of I. C. double, and just under the Pan on the Barrel Rupert Rigg, whoever will bring the said Pistol to Major Reed of Majr Gen1 Sullivan's Division shall receive 20 Dollars reward.
G. O. HEAD QUARTERS Octr 9th 1777.
Major Gen1 for tomorrow . . . Stephens
Brigadr Wayne
Field Officers . . Col. Swift Lt. Col. Ross
Brigade Major Williams
for Picquet Major Foree
By G. O. of 13th Sepr a distribution of Tents was thus directed, one Soldiers Tent for the Field Officers of each Reg1 one d° for 4 Commie1 Officers one d° for every 8 non Commission'd and 1 d° for 8 privates.
The Commanding Officers of Regts are instantly to exam- ine into the number of Tents and Cause all beyond the foregoing allowance to be Collected and deliver'd to the Brige Qr Masters.
In the first place to supply those Corps in the Brigade who are short in that allowance, and the Residue to be deliver'd over to the Qr M. G. to supply the Militia, and such other Corps as are destitute. The Commander in Chief expects the Gen1 Officers, and those Commanding Brigades will see this order carried into effectual and im- mediate execution. Brigr Gen1 Nash will be interr'd at 10 o'clock this forenoon, with Military Honours, at the place where the Road the Troops march'd in Yesterday comes into the great Road. All Officers whose Circumstances will admit of it, will attend and pay this respect to a brave Man who died in defence of his Country.
70 General Mulilenberg's Orderly Book, 1777.
The Execution of John Farndon is postponed till to- morrow at noon.
The General Court Martial whereof Col. Broadhead is President is to sit tomorrow morning at 8 o'clock at the Horsemans Tent by the Artillery Park.
After Orders.
The Gen1 Officers are without delay to have the Roll of Officers call'd and Settled without delay and such as are absent and not sick, wounded or on Command are to be order'd peremptorily to join their respective Corps, and those who are absent without leave, are to be immediately reported to the Commr in Chief, they are also to report the number of Blankets, Stockings and Shoes and other neces- saries to Compleat each Man one Suit. Three Field returns of the Troops are to be made under the immediate inspec- tion of the Gen1 Officers, for this purpose the Corps are to be muster'd when the Rolls is called, and if the weather permits, those returns are to be made tomorrow afternoon sign'd by the Major Gen1 or Commanding Officers, com- manding Divisions. The Brigadrs or Officers Commanding Brigades are immediately to report the number of Men of those return'd, missing after the Action of the 4th Ins* who have join'd their Brigades since the return of the Kill'd &c., and these reports they will Continue to make daily to the Commander in Chief. If Col. Crawford is in Camp he is desired to Call at Head Quarters as soon as may be.
B. 0. Octr 10th 1777
The Commanding Officers of the Regts are immediately to examine in person, and regulate the number of Tents in their respective Regts agreeable to G. O. of the 13th of Sepr and all supernumerary Tents to be deliver'd this morning to the Brigade Qr Master. The Guard at the Commissary's Waggons to be reliev'd this morning from the Brigade as also the Guard at Gen1 Green's.
General Miihlenb erg's Orderly Book, 1777. 71
G. O. HEAD QUARTERS Octr 10th 1777.
Parole. C. Sign.
Major Gen1 for tomorrow . . . Sullivan
Brigr Scott
Field Officers . Col. Marshal, Major Hay
Brige Major Cox
for Piquet .... Major Francis Murray.
The Chaplains of the Army are to meet tomorrow at 12 o'clock in the Rear of the Artillery Park for the purposes mentioned in the G. O. of the 7th Ins1.
The Paymaster Gen1 will attend the Business of his De- partment at Gen1 Weedons Quarters in Gen1 Greens Division at Mr. Finniss' House.
A Court of enquiry consisting of 4 Members and Major G1 Ld Sterling presidents, to sit at 12 o'clock to-day at the Presidents Quarters and examine into the Conduct of Major Gen1 Sullivan and the Expedition Commanded by him to Staten Island in the month of August last, Major Taylor and others who can give information of this matter are to attend, but if the Court see Cause to postpone the Exami- nation for want of evidence (after hearing what Major Taylor has to urge on that head) they are to do it accord- ingly— Gen1 McDougal, Gen1 Knox, Col. Spencer and Col. Clark members.
The Gen1 being inform'd that much provision is wasted by the irregular manner in which it is drawn and Cook'd, does in earnest Terms exhort the Officers Commg Corps, to look into and prevent abuses of this kind, and in very ex- press Terms also, desire that they will see their Men have provision by them ready for any emergency, and moreover that orders both as to Time and Manner, ardently wishing that the necessity of a rigid Compliance with them may be deeply impresa'd upon the minds of every Officer who ought to Consider how impracticable it is to carry on any Military operation without it. It is not for every Officer to know the Principles upon which every Order issues, and to
72 General Muhlenberg's Orderly Book, 1777.
judge how far they may or may not be dispenced with or suspended, but their duty to Carry them into Execution with the utmost punctuality and Exactness. They are to Consider that military movements are like the working of a clock, and will go equally regular and easy if every Officer does His Duty, but without it, be as easily disorder'd, be- cause neglect in any one part, like the stopping of a wheel, disorders the whole. The Gen1 expects therefore that every Officer will duly consider the importance of this observation. Their own reputation and the duty they owe their Country, claims it of them, and he earnestly calls upon them to do it.
The Gen1 directs that the Arms shall be put in the best order without loss of Time, Ammunition Compleated and everything in readiness against a sudden Call, if such should be made upon us. Those who want Arms are to be sup- pli'd immediately by Order from the Adj1 Gen1 but at the foot of each return an account is to be rendered how the the deficiency arises.
Promotions in Consequence ot the late Death and Resig- nations will now take place, as a reward to the merit of deserving Officers. The Succession in which they are to be made agreeable to G. O. is to be reported by the Gen1 Offi- cers of each Division or Brigade after Consulting the Field Officers of the Regt8 they belong to. Officers who are under the imputation of Cowardice, or those whose Charac- ters are in other respects impeachable are to be noted, as the Gen1 is determin'd to discriminate between the good & bad. This order is to be confined to Promotion.
No near appointments will take place at this Time in the weak state of the Reg18.
G. O. HEAD QUARTERS Octr 11th 1777
Major Gen1 for tomorrow . . . Green
Brigadier Muhlenburg
Field Officers Col. Chandler, Lt. Col. Nelson
Brigade Major
Field Officers for Piquet . Major Sumner
General Muhleriberg's Orderly Boole, 1777. 73
The Court of enquiry of which Ld Sterling is President now sitting at the Presidents Quarters, is to enquire into the charge against Brigr G1 Wayne, Viz4, that he had timely notice of the Enemys intention to attack the Troops under his Command on the night of the 20th Ult° and notwith- standing that intelligence, he neglected making a disposition untill it was too late, either to annoy the enemy or make a Retreat, without the utmost Danger and Confusion. The President will give Notice of the time, when the Court can enter on the Enquiry, then the parties and evidences are to attend.
A Flag will go to the Enemy 's Lines on Monday next at nine in the Morning, all persons who have Letters or other things to send in, must have them at Head Quarters by that time.
Twice a week, Viz* Wednesdays and Saturdays, the Offi- cers of each Company are carefully to inspect the Arms, Ammunition & Accoutrement of their Men, to see that they are in perfect order, and that nothing is wanting, at the first inspection they are to take an exact account of every Article belonging to each Man, and if afterwards any be missing, they are immediately to report the same to the officer Commanding their Reg1 that the matter may be en- quired into, if he judges it proper by a Reg1 Court Martial, & the Delinquent punish'd if deserving it, and charg'd with the Articles lost to be deducted from his Wages.
The Militia from the Counties of Prince William, Cul- peper, Soudon & Berkely in the state of Virginia are to be form'd into a Brigade and be under the Command of Col. William Crawford, the Q. M. G1 and the Commissary Gen1 are to appoint persons therein to do the Duties of their re- spective Departments.
All the Troops that came from Picks Kill under the Command of Gen1 McDougal, Varnum and Huntingdon (Malcoms Reg1 excepted) are to be thrown into 2 Brigades in such Manner as those Genls shall think best. A report of which is to be made to the ComnT in Chief for his further
74 General Mulilenberg's Orderly Book, 1777.
Orders. Gol. Malcom's Reg* is to join Gen1 Conways Brigade.
Twelve light Horse with an Officer are to Mount Guard every Day with the Pickets and be dispos'd off at the dif- ferent Piquets for the purpose of Conveying early intelli- gence in such a way as the Major Gen1 of the Day shall direct.
The Commanding officers of all those Companies which was raised as part of the 16th Additional Battalions, and at different Times annexed to other Regt3 are to make im- mediate returns to y" Adjutant Gen1 of their strength and in what Reg* they are now doing Duty.
The Commir in Chief has the pleasure to inform the Army that Congress has in an unanimous Resolve express'd their thanks to the officers and men concern'd in the attack on the Enemy near German Town on the 4th Inst. for their exertion on that Occasion, and hopes the Approbation of that Honble Body will Stimulate them to still nobler Efforts on every future occasion.
Cap1 Paul Parker of Col. Hartley's Reg* is appoin* to do the Duty of Brigade Major in Gen1 Waynes Brigade till further Orders and is to be respected and obey'd as such.
All firing of Guns is absolutely forbidden without License first obtain'd by the Major Gen1 of the Day, and the instant a gun is fired, a serj* and file of Men shall be sent to catch the Villain who is thus wasting ammunition and alarming the Camp, All Officers are strictly required to see this Order put in execution.
The Brigade Major of the Day is always to bring in 4 Drums and 4 Fifers to the Parade, to be distributed to the Guards if necessary, or otherwise disposed of as the Brigr of the Day shall order.
Was found in the possession of a Soldier of the 1st Penn- sylv* Reg1 a Silver Watch, any person giving a Description of the same, may hear of her by applying to Adf McCormick of y' 1st Pennsylv* Reg1
General Muhlenberg's Orderly Book, 1777. 75
G. O. HEAD QUARTERS Octr 12th 1777
Major Gen1 for tomorrow . Stephens
Brigadier Small wood
Brigadier Major Peers
for Piquet Lt. Col. Davis
Major Lockart of the 3d Reg' of North Carolina is pro- moted to the Rank of Lieu1 Col. in the 8th Reg1 from the same State in the Room of Col. Ingram resign 'd. Cap1 Henry Dickson of the 1st Carolina Reg* promoted to the Rank of Major in the 3d Reg1 of the same State. The Commr in Chief approves the following sentences of a Court Martial held the 3d iris1 whereof Col. Josiah Parker was president Viz" Ensign Cassen of the 4th Reg1 charg'd with accusing Ensign Ford of Cowardice and getting Drunk in the morning and behaving in an ungentleman like manner, found guilty of the charges against him and Sentenc'd to be discharg'd from the Service. Ensign Thomas Shank of 10th Pennsy* Reg1 charg'd with stealing 2 pair Shoes from Lieut Adam's Reg8 Qr Master Serg' to the 10th Pennsyl* found guilty of the charge exhibited against him & sentenc'd to be discharg'd from the Service. Major Forrest of Col. Proc- tor's Reg* of Artillery charg'd with neglect of Duty and with disobedience of Orders to the prejudice of the Service, good order & military Discipline and with breaking his arrest, found guilty of the two first charges only, Sentenc'd to be reprimanded in Gen1 Orders, it appears from the Evi- dence that Major Forrest's Conduct was highly reprehensi- ble because of such a nature as tends to the foundation of Order in any Army. When an officer is ordered to do anything in the line of his Duty he ought upon the propiety of the measure, but execute it in the best manner he can, remembering that implicit obedience which Constitutes true Discipline is essential to the success and even existence of an Army, it is the ardent wish of the Commr in Chief that the duty of the Camp may be perform'd with the greatest exactness and regularity and he desires that the Major Gen1
76 General Mulilenberg's Orderly Boole., 1777.
Brigadr Gen1 and Field Officers of the Day attend the Pa- rade constantly at the Guard Mounting and that the guards are duly marched off, and everything conducted with pro- priety. Henceforward the guards are to mount at 9 o'clock in the morning. The officers have now an opportunity of attending to the Discipline of the Army every Day when the weather permits. The Corps are to be turned out and Exercis'd in the most essential Exercises, particularly in the Priming & Loading, forming, advancing & retreating, breaking & rallying, and no pains are to be spared to im- prove the Troops in these points. All parties and witnesses relative to the charges against Gen1 "Wayne are to attend at the Court of enquiry at Lord Sterling's Quarters tomorrow morning at 9 o'clock. The Q. M. G. is to provide proper paper immediately that the several Corps may be furnish'd without delay.
After Orders.
For the better security of the Ammunition, each Brigade Qr Mr is early tomorrow morning to go with ten Axe Men, and five other Men of his Brigade, and collect with the utmost care and dispatch all the Horses he can find, at this and the late encampment of the Army, and immediately upon his return, report the number he shall have collected. He will take a Waggon with him.
HEAD QUARTERS Octr 13th 1777. Parole. C. Sign
Major Gen1 for tomorrow . . . Sullivan
Brigadier Varnum
Field Officers . Col. Bradley L< Col. Green Brigade Major .... Day Field Officer For Piquet Major Sterrit
The sending a Flag to the Enemy's Lines will be defer'd till tomorrow morning, nine o'clock.
Those Battalions and Corps that have join'd the Army since the 3d instant are to attend to the Orders of that day, with regard to making out their muster Rolls, an immediate
General Mulileriberg's Orderly Book, 1777. 77
attention to this Duty of every Officer who has not already performed it.
It is with real grief and amazement that the Gen1 ob- serves by the late Returns how deficient of Arms and accoutrements the Continental Troops are, he directs that they may be speedily supplied with Musquets, and if there is not a sufficient number of Cartouch Boxes, that the Tin Boxes be taken from those who have Cartouch Boxes to supply the defect of those who have none. After this the Gen1 positively Orders that the Arms, Ammunition and accoutrements be examin'd once a day by an Offr of each Company. That this may certainly be done, he expects the Commanding Officer of each Regiment will give particular attention to the Duty here enjoin'd, he also recommends it to the Gen1 Officers as a matter well worthy of their Care. Any Soldier after this who shall lose, sell or otherwise dis- pose of his accoutremts, Arms or Cloathing, shall be pun- ish'd in the most exemplary manner without the smallest mitigation. As there are not spare Cartouch Boxes at this time to supply the Militia, Col. Crawford is desired to use his utmost skill and industry to procure Horns and pouches to carry their Ammunition in, or to adopt any other method, he may upon Consulting his Officers find men expeditious he is to appoint some Active person acquainted with the Duty as Brige Major Protem, who will be allow'd pay dur- ing the time he acts. As great and many Valuable advan- tages would result from having the Arms of a Division or even of a Brigade of the same Corps, the Commander in Chief directs that each officer Commanding a Brigade would have a return instantly made to him of the differ- ent Calibers and number of each kind in his Brigade, and that as soon as this is done Major Gen1 Sullivan would call all the General Officers, and Officers Commanding Brigades together, and see if such a disposition of Arms can be effected as many happy consequences may flow from it.
Detail as yesterday, except that Hazen's, Waynes, Ham- tons, Maxwells, Conways and the North Carolina Brigade
78 General Muhlenberg's Orderly Boole, 1777.
give Captains for Piquet in addition to their other Detail, and the other six Brigades to give no Captains tomorrow.
Advertisements.
Found a pair of Screw Barrel Pistols, the owner proving his property may hear of them at Gen1 Greens Quarters.
Found this day a Silver Watch, the owner proving his property may receive it a Gen1 Greens Quarters.
Found by a Soldier in the Corp of Artillery a few days after the Battle of Brandy wine, a Hanger, the Owner may have it by applying to Col. Crane.
A. 0. Octr 13th 1777.
Altho' orders have been given to Compleat the Army to 40 rounds pr Man, the Gen1 did not intend that they should be distributed to the Men till further Orders, except so far as should be necessary to fill the Cartridge Boxes & Tin Cannisters, all above that number are to be collected im- mediately and deposited in a good cover'd "Waggon of the Brigade or Division, no delay is to be made in this matter, lest the Cartridges be spoiled or lost.
The Companies rais'd by Capts Steel, Trevior, Kearsly & Calderwood are to join Col. Malcom's Reg1 and compose part of it. What Blankets, Breeches and Shoes are in the Clothier's Store, are to be distributed tomorrow upon appli- cation to him, without further Orders.
G. O. HEAD QUARTERS Octr 14th 1777.
Parole C. Sign
Major Gen1 for tomorrow . . , . Green
Brigadier Huntingdon
Field Officers . Col. Stephens L' Col. Lynly
Brigade Major Plath
For Piquet Major Bruster
The Officers on Guard are to make report of them to the Officers of the Day, who will report the same to the Adj' Gen1.
General Mulileriberg's Orderly Book, 1777. 79
Doctor Craig Director of the Hospital at Reading, has sent a List of the wounded there, whose Blankets and other necessaries remain in Camp. The Commanding Officers of Regts are immediately to make most diligent search for all such necessaries belonging to the wounded of their respec- tive Regiments, Collect them together, and lodge them with all possible dispatch at the Qr Master Gen1 Qrs. The wounded are now suffering for want of them, and not a moment is to be lost in relieving those Brave Men who have suffer 'd in their Country's Cause. The Brigade Majors are to send Lists of their names to the officers Commg Regts without delay.
Hitchcock Esqr is appointed to do the Duty of Brigade Major in the 2d Maryland Brigade (late Deborers) and is to be respected accordingly. John Lawson Esqr Adj' to the Prince William Militia is appointed to do the Duty of Brigade Major in the Brigade of Militia under the Com- mand of Col. Crawford and is to be respected as such. Richard Emory is appointed to do -the Duty of Brigade Major in the 1st Maryland Brigade and is to be respected accordingly.
G. O. HEAD QUARTERS Oetr 15th '77
Major Gen1 for tomorrow . . . Stephens
Brigadier Weedon
Field Officers . Col. Lewis Lt, Col. Nagle
Brigade Major Parker
Field Officer for Piquet . Major Richardson
The Gen1 has the repeated pleasure of informing the Army of the success of the Troops under the Command of Gen1 Gaites over Gen1 Burgoynes on the 7th Ins* the Action Commenc'd about 3 o'clock afternoon between the Piquets of the Two Armies which was reinforc'd on both sides. The Contest was warm and continued with obstinacy till evening, when our Troops gain'd the advanc'd Lines of the Enemy and encamp'd on that ground all night. The Enemy fled and left behind them 330 Tents, with Kettles
80 General Muhleriberg's Orderly Book, 1777.
boiling with corn. Eight Brass field pieces (Two 12 and six 6 Pounders) upwards of 200 of their Dead, and the Baggage of their flying Army. Gen1 Frazier is among the Dead. Our Troops took 550 non Commissd Officers and Privates prisoners besides Sir Francis Carr Clark aid du Camp to Gen1 Burgoyne a Qr Master Gen1 (said to be Carleton) the Commg Officers of Artillery of a Foreign Brigade and of the British Grenadiers and a number of inferior Rank. Two of our Generals Lincoln and Arnold were wounded in the Leg, besides these our Troops suffer'd but very little they be- haved with great bravery and intrepidity and have thus triumphed over the Valour of Vetran Troops.
When the last account came away Gen1 Burgoynes Arrny was retreating and our's pursuing.
The Gen1 congratulates the Troops upon this signal Vic- tory, the 3d Capital Advantage which under Divine Provi- dence we have gain'd in that Quarter and hopes it will prove a powerful Stimulas to the Army under his immediate Command, at least to equal their northern Brethren in brave and intrepid exertions when calPd thereto. The Gen- eral wishes them to Consider this is the Grand American Army, and that of course great things are expected of it. It is the Army of whose Superior prowess some have boasted. What shame then and Dishonour will attend us if we suffer ourselves in every instance to be outdone. We have a Force sufficient (by the favour of Heaven) to Crush our Foe, and nothing is wanting but a Spirited persevering exertion of it to which besides the motives before men- tioned. Duty and the love of our Country irresistibaly impel us the Effect of such powerful Motives (no Man who possesses the Spirit of a Soldier can withstand) Spurr'd on by them the Gen1 assures himself that on the next occasion, his Troops will be Compleatly successful. In Honour of the Northern Army, and to celebrate their Victory, thir- teen pieces of cannon are to be discharged, at the Artillery Park at 5 o'clock this afternoon previous to which the Brigades and Corps are to be drawn out on their respective
General Muhlenberg's Orderly Boole, 1777. 81
Parades, and those Orders distinctly read to them by their Officers. Those Men in Col. Crawfords Brigade of Militia, whose pieces cannot be drawn are to be discharg'd at 5 o'clock this afternoon. The Troops are to march tomorrow from the Right at 7 o'clock in the morning. The Major Gen1 of the Day will point out the Order of March. Brigade Returns are to be made immediately, of all the seamen in the respective Corps of the Army. The Brigadiers and Officers Commg Brigades, are without the smallest delay to make strict inquiry about the Tin Cannisters which have been issued to them and report the number now with them, and inform what is become of the rest. In consequence of a representation of the field Officers of Col. Stewarts Regimt8, Cap* Patrick Anderson and Lieut. Jacob Meltz of that Reg* are hereby suspended for their non-attendance and their unworthy Conduct as Officers, their pay is to be stopp'd. A Court of enquiry consisting of five Members one of which Gen1 Green is to be President, is to sit at the President's Quarters at 3 o'clock this afternoon to enquire into the charges against Brigr Gen1 Maxwell. All witnesses are to attend at the same time. Brigr General Muhlenburg and Varnum, Col. Stewart and Richardson are appointed members of this Court. A Gen1 Court Martial of Horse Officers is to sit at Col. Moylands Quarters tomorrow at nine o'clock in the morning for the Tryal of all Prisoners of the Horse, which shall be brought before them. Col. Moyland is appointed President of this Court. Detail the same as Yesterday, only the six Brigades which furnish'd Captains yesterday are not to do it tomorrow, the other six furnish them, and the North Carolina Brigade is to give but 16 privates for Piquet.
A. 0.
As the Army is to march tomorrow at 7 o'clock, the new Piquets are to be on the Grand Parade an hour before agreeable to Gen1 Orders of the 15th 8eptr. The Brigade Majors will Remember that this was a Standing Order. VOL. xxxv. — 6
82 General Mulilenbery's Orderly Boole, 1777.
G. 0. HEAD QUARTERS WORCESTER TOWNSHIP 16th Octr '77 Parole C. Sign
Major Gen1 for tomorrow Sullivan
Brigr McDougal
Field Officers Col. Martin of Jersey L* Col. Han.
Brigade Major Williams
Piquet Major Bayard
The Cornm. in Chief positively orders that the Horse Encamp compactly in the Rear of the Army, and as near Head Quarters as possible. The Regiments are to continue to draw materials and go on making Cartridges every day with Care and Dispatch and when made they are to be re- turn'd to the Commissary of Military Stores. The Court of enquiry of which Major Gen1 Lord Sterling was Presi- dent held the 12th Ins1 to examine into the Conduct of Major Gen1 Sullivan in the Expedition Commanded by him to Staten Island in the month of August last, report their opinion as follows. Viz6 The Court after hearing the Evi- dences against the Conduct of Major Gen1 Sullivan and those produced by him in his defence, and duly Considering the same, are unanimously of opinion that the Expedition against the Enemy on Staten Island was eligible and pro- mised great advantage to the cause of America, that the Expedition was well Concerted, and the orders for the exe- cution proper, and would have succeeded with reputation to the Gen1 & Troops under his Command, had it not in some measure been rendered abortive, by accidents which were out of the power of the Gen1 to foresee or prevent, that Gen1 Sullivan was particularly active in embarking the Troops to the Island, and took every precaution to bring them off, that he made early provision to refresh the Troops of his Division at Elizabeth Town, when they return'd to the Jerseys, and that upon the maturest Consideration of the Evidence in possession of this Court, that he deserves the approbation of his Country and not its Censure. The Court therefore are of opinion, unanimously that he ought
General Muhleriberg's Orderly Book, 1777. 83
to stand honorably acquitted of every Unsoldierlike Con- duct in the Expedition against Staten Island.
Advertisement.
The Camp Equipage of the late Gen 1 Nash is to be sold tomorrow Afternoon at 3 o'clock at the Brigade he lately Commanded.
A. O.
The Regt8 Commanded by Col* Greene, Angel, Durgee and Chandler, are to form one Brigade under the Command of Brig6 Gen1 Varnum. The Regt8 Commanded by Col8 Pren- tice, Bradley and Swift are to form one Brigade under the Commd of Brigr Gen1 Huntingdon, those two Brigades form a Division to be Commanded by Brigr Gen1 McDougall.
IX 0. 9 o'clock P. M. Octr 16 1777.
The 2d and 5th Virginia Regt8 with the Pennsy* State Reg* are to have one Days Provision cook'd & be in readi- ness to march at Eleven tomorrow. The Recruits belonging to those Regt* are to be left behind. Gen1 Weedon will take the Commd of this detachment he will receive orders at Head Quarters.
HEAD QUARTERS PETER WENTZ'S Octr 17th '77.
Major Gen1 for tomorrow . . . Stephen
Brigr Gen1 Wayne
Field Officers . Col. Johnston Lt. Col. Nevill
Brigade Major Hitchcock
Field Officer for Piquet . . . Majr Morris
The Troops are to be under Arms at Eleven O'clock this forenoon, except those Men who are employ'd in making Cartridges, and the Gen1 expects that the Commanding Officers of each Regiment daily keep a number of the best Hands diligently working at that business till further Orders. The Troops are to parade with one Days pro- visions ready Cook'd.
84 General Muhlenberg's Orderly Boole, 1777.
Advertisement.
Lost on the March from New Hanover to Rawlin's Ford the 28th Sepr last, a small brass mounted Pistol, screw barrel rifled, a common Lock, Walsingham engrav'd on the plate, whoever has found the same and will bring it to Ll Col. Adams of 7th Maryland Reg4, Gen1 Sullivans Division, shall receive 16 Dollars reward.
D. 0. 11 o'clock P.M.
The 1st Virginia Reg* in Gen1 Muhlenburg's Brigade, and the 6th in Gen1 Weedons Brigade, are to be in Readiness to March tomorrow morning by Sun rise, L* Col. Green who commds this Detachment will receive Orders at head Quarters.
G. 0. HEAD QUARTERS PETER WENTZ Octr 18th 77
Major Gen1 for tomorrow . . Ld Sterling
Brigadier Gen1 . Scott
Field Officers . L< Col. RusselL* Col. Gurney
Brigade Major Emory
Field Officer for Piquet . . Major Lockart
Detail same as Yesterday, saving that Hazen's, Waynes, Hamptons, Maxwell's, Conways, and hash's Brigades find Captains in addition to their other details, and the other Brigades do not find Captains.
The Gen1 has his happiness Compleated relative to our Success to the northern Army, on the 14th Ins* Gen1 Bur- goyne and his whole Army Surrender'd themselves prison- oners of War, let every face brighten, and every heart ex- pand with grateful Joy and Praise to the Supreme Dis- poser of all human Events, who has granted us this signal Success. The Chaplains of the Army are to prepare short discourses, suited to the Joyful Occasion to deliver to their several Corps and Brigades at 5 o'clock this afternoon, im- mediately after this 13 pieces of Cannon are to be dis-
General Muhleriberg's Orderly Book, 1777. 85
charg'd at the Park of Artillery, to be followed by a Feu de Joy with blank Cartridges or Powder by every Brigade and Corps of the Army beginning on the right of the Front Line and running on to the left of it, and then instantly beginning on the left of the Second Line and running to the right of it, where it is to end.
The Major Gen1 of the Day will superintend and regulate the Feu de Joy. The Officers Commanding Brigades and Corps are to draw out their Men (excepting those on Duty) every day when the Weather permits, to practice the most necessary manouvres, particularly to advance in Line, from hence to form Columns to go through passes & openings in fences, and reduce them again to retire in a Line and Col- umn, and and form again in a word, to perform all those movements which in Action, a woody and inclos'd Country shall make necessary.
Advertisement.
A Horse with a Saddle and Bridle came to Gen1 Knox's Quar8 at the last encampment, the owner proving his prop- erty may have it again.
D. O. 7 o'clock P. M.
The German Battalion, with what Provisions they have on hand, are to parade in front of the Division Commanded by Gen1 McDougall at Sun rise tomorrow morning.
A. 0.
HEAD QUARTERS 7 o'clock.
Two Hundred Men with two field Officers, 4 Captains, 8 Sub8 from each Division Viz6 Sullivan, Greene, Wayne, McDougall, Ld Sterling and Stephens are to parade tomor- row morning at Sun rise, in the Field before the front Line, with Arms, Ammunition & at least one Days Provisions Cook'd, but without either Packs or Blankets. Gen1 Sulli- van will take Command of the whole.
The Men employ'd in making Cartridges are by no means to be taken from that business, but kept diligently about it.
86 General Mulilenberg's Orderly Book, 1777.
HEAD QUARTERS Octr 19th 77
Major Gen1 for tomorrow . . . Sullivan
Brigadr Gen1 Huntingdon
Field Officers . Col. Price Lt. Col. Brearly
Brigade Major McGowen
Field Officer for Pickett . Major Cropper
The Brigadiers and officers Commanding Brigades, are to appoint Gen1 Courts Martial in their respective Brigades, for the trial of all non Commiss'd Officers and Privates, now in the provost belonging to their respective Brigades, these Courts are to sit tomorrow morng at 9 o'clock and daily afterwards till all the Prisoners are tried, each Court will appoint their Judge advocate.
The Commander in Chief approves the following Sen- tences of a Gen1 Court Martial, held the 7th and 10th insts whereof Colonel Broadhead was president, Viz. Cap* Crump of the l§t Virga Reg* charged with Cowardice, is found guilty and Sentenc'd to be Cashier'd and his name, place of abode, and his punishm* publish'd in the News Papers in and about Camp, and in the News1 Papers of the particular State he came from, or in which he usually resides. After which it shall be deem'd Scandalous for any Officer to asso- ciate with him. Cap* John Stoner of the 10th Pennsylvania charg'd with leaving the Reg* in a cowardly manner, in the Action at Chad's ford on Brandy wine on the 11th of Sepr last, found guilty of leaving his Reg* improperly the 11th of 8epr last, when an Action was expected but not in a Cow- ardly manner, and sentenc'd to be reprimanded by the Brigr of the Brigade the 10th Pennsylv is in, in presence of the Officers of the Brigade. The Command' in Chief also ap- proves the following sentences of the same Court Martial, held the 11th and 12th ins* Viz— L* Willm Courts of the 2d Maryland Reg* charg'd with Cowardice at the Battle of Brandywine the 11th of Sepr last also with giving Major Adams of the 7th Maryland Reg* impertinent and abusive language when he apply'd to him to know the reason of his
General Muhlenberg' s Orderly Boole, 1777. 87
Conduct that Day, acquitted of the charges against him. L* Simon Morgan of the 13th Virga Reg* charg'd with Cow- ardice on the 4th ins1 acquitted with honor by the Unani- mous Opinion of the Court.
Cap1 Henry Shede of the 10th Pennsy* Reg1 charg'd with absenting himself from the Reg* without leave for near 2 months, found guilty and Sentenc'd to be cashier'd. L* Rains of the 15th Virg* charged with sending a soldier (William. Bluford) to bring Water in a Tin Cartouch Box, found by the unanimous Opinion of (the Court not guilty of the charge. The Commr in Chief approves the following Sentences of a Gen1 Court Martial of the Brigade of Horse held the 17th ins* of which Col. Moyland was Presid* Viz. Lt. Col. Byrd, charg'd with Countermanding the Orders, Col. Bland gave to two Soldiers to fall into their Ranks re- peatedly on Parade, and for disobeying the Orders of Col. Bland when directed to order the said Men into their Ranks on the night the Cavalry passed the Schulkill. Col. Byrd admitted the justness of the charge, whereupon the Court Consider'd whether Col. Bland had or had not a right to Command L* Col. Byrd while a Superior Officer was pres- ent, and determin'd that he had not. David Organ a private in Col. Bland's Reg* confin'd for insolence and Drunken- ness, was brought before the Court, but no evidence ap- pearing against him, was Dismiss'd.
Charles Field of Col. Moyland's Reg* charged with steal- ing a port manteau, sundry Clothing and a pair of Silver Buckles from Benona Fraze of Col. Sheldon's Reg* was judged guilty of the Theft, and sentenc'd to receive 50 lashes and to be dismissed from the Service of the Ameri- can Army.
G1 A. O.
The Reg1 Surgeons are to make returns of the Sick in Camp who are proper Subjects for the Hospital, to Doctr Cochran at the Qr Mr Gen18 Quarters tomorrow morning pre- cisely at 8 o'clock.
88 General Muhlenlerg's Orderly Book, 1777.
The whole Army is to be ready to march tomorrow morning at 4 o'clock, with what Tents, necessary Baggage, &c are at the present Encampment. If any of the Troops have not already drawn provision for tomorrow, it is now to be Drawn and Cook'd without delay. The Commissaries of Divisions are instantly to send down Provisions for their respective detachments which marched this morning with orders to reach the Detachment before they stop.
G. 0. Hd QUARTERS 21st Octr 77.
Parole C. Sign
Major Gen1 for tomorrow . : . Sullivan
Brigadier Conway
Field Officers . Col. Hall Major Stubblefield
For Piquet Major Howard
Brigade Major Johnston
A Gen1 Court Martial is to sit tomorrow morning at 9 o'clock at the Qr Mas' Genls Quarters for the trial of all Prisoners which may be brought before them, Col. Grayson is appointed Presid1 of this Court, Ll Col. Heath & Major Smith and one Cap1 from each of the following Brigades, Viz. Muhlenburgs, Woodford's, Waynes, D Hains, 1st Maryland, 2d Maryland, Two from Gen1 Weedons and 2 from Scott's are to Compose the Members of this Court. A Gen1 Court Martial of the Brigade of Horse of which Col. Bland is to be President, is to sit tomorrow morning at 9 o'clock at the Presidents Qr8 for the trial of Prisoners. The Court to consist of three field officers, besides the President and of Nine Capts of Horse.
Advertisement.
Stray'd or Stolen from a Team in the Service of the 5th Maryland Reg1 in Gen1 Sullivan's Division on the night of the 16th Ins1. A white Horse about 14 hands high, Stout and well made with a switch Tail, has been Cut on his left Buttock with an Ax which has occasioned a hollow Scar,
General Muhleriberg's Orderly Book, 1777. 89
also a Grey Mare about 14 hands high, remarkably well made, and is a natural Trotter- She is mark'd a little above the left Flank by the bite of a Horse. Whoever takes up and will deliver the sd horse & Mare to the Qr Master of the 5th Maryland Keg* shall receive Twenty Dollars reward, or Fourteen for the Mare and six for the Horse.
G. O. HEAD QUARTERS UPPER DUBLIN Octr 22d 77.
Major Gen1 for tomorrow Green
Brigadier Smallwood
Field Officers . Col. Chambers L* Col. Thackston
Brigade Major Peers
Field Officer for Piquet .... Lt, Col. Ford
Such of the Troops as have not already drawn provision for to-day and tomorrow, are to do it immediately & cook the whole, and all be ready to march at the shortest notice.
D. O.
The 2d and 10th Virginia, with the Pennsy* State Regi- ments in Gen1 Weedon's Brigade to hold themselves in readiness to march at 6 o'clock this Evening. The 5th Virginia and the German Keg8 of Gen1 Muhlenburgs Bri- gade also be in readiness to march at the same time, with- out Blankets or any kind of incumberance to be compleat with 40 Pounds of Ammunition.
D. A. O.
The whole Division is to be in readiness to move this Evening at 6 o'clock every Man is to be provided with 40 Rounds of Ammunition, A Gill of Rum and a Blanket.
(To be continued.)
90 Letters of a French Officer, 1777-'78.
LETTERS OF A FRENCH OFFICER, WRITTEN AT EASTON, PENNA., IN 1777-1778.
[The following interesting letters never reached their destination. They were forwarded via Boston, and the vessel carrying the mail for France was captured by a British cruiser. They were recently found, partially mutilated, among the prize papers in the records of the High Court of Admiralty, London. The Pennsylvania Magazine is in- debted for copies to J. Franklin Jameson, Director of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, D. C., and for trans- lations to Albert J. Edmunds, of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.]
I am resting in my room this evening with real pleasure. I had so arranged my day, after my walk, I had to come home to write to you, and entertain myself with yon. I have imagined that I had a visit to make you. I have fixed the hour, and in my ordinary course, I have found myself at home about three quarters of an hour earlier. If I could only be settled for once ! But I am one place today and another tomorrow. Nevertheless I have been here fifteen days, and have not lost any time. I have found a man, quite old, who has traveled in all the countries of Europe, having served with the Empress of Russia, and acquired a good deal in his travels. He has the kindness to talk with me in a language which gives me infinite pleasure to study, though all who speak it around me displease me supremely — all of them : men, women, girls and children have an air of untidiness in spite of their apparel, so much so, that a Frenchman would have to be very perverted, and to have lost the good taste which characterizes our nation, to be- come strongly attached to one. Forgive me this digression.
I return to my gentleman. He has loaned me The Spirit of Laws, in English, and in spite of their jealousy of every- thing that is French and good, they have translated it into
Letters of a French Officer, 1777-'78, 91
their language. I am making extracts from it ; all my mornings are employed on that. I am learning to speak, read and write English, in which I feel that I am making some progress by the ease wherewith I begin to enunciate and by the pleasure which I have in \vorking at it. 0 my dear Mentor, I want to teach you this language ; you would like it, it is really a beautiful language and agreeable to learn.
In the afternoon I take my walk until five or six o'clock, or sometimes I go and take tea with my landlord's son-in- law, who makes very good leather breeches, and in his leisure moments is a Colonel in the service. He is very agree- able; but, whatever evil I may have spoken about women, he has one at his house who is a little more so than he is, and very pretty too. I speak English with her a good deal ; she is seventeen, the wife of an artillery captain,1 the most capricious little woman you could see. But, as I am not at all in love ; even friendship counts for nothing ; as there is on my side, nothing but social politeness, and on hers a little curiosity. When she is in good humor she is gay, teaches me to speak, and we dispute upon the greater part of the usages which are nothing less than polite. That gives me a moment of distraction, after which I go back to my room and chat with you, or I speak, translate and write English.
EASTON, Oct. 23, 1777.
Search a little on the map, my dear friend, not of the Holy Land (tho' I am only ten miles from Bethlehem and six from Nazareth), for a place where the great river Dela- ware unites its two branches, at about 70 or 80 miles from Philadelphia, and you will know positively where your brother is, and tho' in the midst of mountains, and in a peninsula formed by these two rivers and another stream,
1 He has juit been killed at Fort Ked Bank when the British took it. [The story that the British had taken it was of course a false Tory rumor.]
92 Letters of a French Officer, 1777-'78.
he does not forget that he has a brother by whom he is loved, and to whom he returns this sentiment with interest. You surely know about the death of poor Du Coudray. Whatever wrongs he may have done me in this country, I cannot help mourning for him.1 His death has left us be- wildered, though ever united, since we have united our powers in a single person who is charged with our affairs at the Congress, intending, however, to return to us as soon as possible after having been trifled with up to the point that we were during the life of our poor General. N"ot one of our Serjeants even, to whom Captain's commissions are offered, wish to remain, they prefer to return as soldiers to France. The Congress, it seems to me, is anxious to drag out this business long enough so as not to allow us to return so soon to France, a body of officers and Serjeants numerous enough for the unanimity of their manner of speaking and for Du Coudray's papers, which they possess, to be able to bring to light the unworthy fashion in which they [the Congress] have behaved to the face of officers whom their ambassador has drawn from their body upon the faith of treaties and the agreement of their sovereign.2 The people here who are not led by the petty intrigues of the Congress and who see in us only a body united enough in appearance, discontented, testifying this discontent quite loudly, ready to go back to France and give a bad idea of the good faith of these folk who do not keep their treaties — these [good] people, [I say] , are in despair, are loudly blaming the actions of the Con- gress, and are seeking to persuade us to stay. But no one wants to stay except M. Deloyant, to whom we testified that we should be quite glad when our interests were no longer his. He has had the offer of a Colonelcy, not in the army, but civilly, in one of the Colonies. I think he will accept
1 "Sept. 16. About eleven o'clock, Gen. Coudray, with nine French officers, set out for camp over Schuylkill. The General being mounted in the boat, his horse became restive and jumped overboard with him, and the General was drowned." Hiltzhcimer's Diary.
2 The ambiguity here is in the original.
Letters of a French Officer, 1777-'78. 93
it. As to myself, I don't know yet what I shall do. I only hope that nobody will blame me when I have taken my step, because I shall not take it except upon mature reflection.
There is some great news in this country. On the 17th of this month, Burgoyne sent to General Gates to ask a six days' armistice, upon seeing himself surrounded by an army which he believed to be much more numerous than his own. Gates sent word to him that he would only grant him six minutes, and that if he did not surrender he would get no quarter. Gates' aide-de-camp carried the conditions under orders not to allow Burgoyne more than fifteen minutes. Burgoyne, not being able to decide, asked for two hours, which were granted to him. At the end of this time, the aide-de-camp wishing to withdraw,Burgoyne signed the capi- tulations, by which he is to march out with all the honors of war ; at a place designated the troops are to lay down their arms, the artillery and all the munitions are to be delivered to the American general ; all these troops are to be sent back to England as soon as possible ; Lieut. Gen. Burgoyne, Major General Phillips and three brigadiers may have the liberty to return, and he [Burgoyne] must promise, in the name of all these troops, never to bear arms against the Americans without being exchanged. Such are the conditions upon which Burgoyne has surrendered : 5500 men have therefore marched past foaming with rage and cursing their General, to whom they have said that they would sooner be reduced to two ounces of biscuit a day than surrender; and they have turned over 6000 excellent firearms, forty pieces of cannon, and the best munitions which have yet been seen on this Continent.
Never will the Englishmen wipe out this shame; 5500 men of the best of troops surrendered at discretion to lees than 10,000 militia; but the firmness of Gates, who perhaps did not expect this, has done it all. Burgoyne, General Phillips and the brigadiers, the nephew of the Duke of Grafton and other members of Parliament, are at Albany.
94 Letters of a French Officer, 1777-'78.
The soldiers are sent into New England, but it is said that they do not want to return to England, and that they are asking for lands or else deserting into the interior of the country. So this is the news from the North !
From the South, Philadelphia is taken, that is to say, has been abandoned ; the English are entrenched there ; but I fancy they are very ill at ease because they cannot capture the fort which is defended by the chevaux-de-frise.1 They cannot get a single one of their vessels up, and days ago the Americans burnt two of their best war vessels, the Augusta and the East Indies, of 64 guns each. We heard the explosion of them here.2 It broke the glass in all the windows for six miles around. The second lost all its crew. This, my dear friend, is the news. If General Howe does not take care, he may find himself made very uneasy, even in his camp at Germantown, by the Americans; and if one of their divisions which had gone astray in the woods, in spite of their good capacity, had not been two hours late, the English would have been repulsed as far as Philadelphia and perhaps farther. There was a very thick mist, and still these folks are so little warlike ! But they are beginning to get used to fire. Without all these ob- stacles Howe would have been cut to pieces. He has beaten these folk in two spirited battles since he landed in Chesapeake Bay. Let him look out for a third battle ! He buys them by dint of men, and it is not so easy for him to recruit his army as it is for these folk who have plenty of militia and resources. You see, then, that there is good news for these people : An army of prisoners and two war ships burnt.
1 The forts are taken. The English have burned Germantown and are determined to pass the Winter in Philadelphia. General Washington is passing it under huts in a forest. It is said that his camp is original and yet quite well laid out.
2 Oct. £4. ' ' Heavy and uninterrupted cannonading was heard from early in the morning until noon, when after a thundering report and concussion it ceased." Bethlehem Diary.
Letters of a French Officer, 1111 -'18. 95
You are going to ask me what I am doing at Easton. I will tell you. The Congress is at York, behind the great and famous river Susquehanna, which forms the head of Chesapeake Bay. We have there a good many of our men and the one who is commissioned to ask for our compensa- tion, etc. When we get some news, some one will come and bring it here to me. I shall go and carry it to another man further off, and so on to Boston, which is our rallying place, except for those who have business in San Domingo, they will embark from the South. It is already twelve days since I returned from York, and I am confined here, the only Frenchman, with the three most decided characters of the place. There are in town four English officers, prisoners on parole. I have become acquainted with my hostess's son-in-law, am going to buy some leather breeches from him; the Colonel is a very agreeable young man and a great Whig.
He has with him a very pretty little wife from Boston, aged 18 years, with a very pretty figure, white as milk, her back quite round and moreover a charming throat, which is a rarity in this country. The first four days that I saw her, I was received by her wonderfully ; my vanity was so much flattered by it, that at the end of those four days we were very familiar indeed. The women in this country attach very little importance to a thousand petty things which in France our women make us pass as the greatest favors, which we regard as so much more decisive from the fact that they rarely fail of being crowned with success. Here a woman will kiss you all day ; will do a thousand foolish things with you — crush your foot, make your arm black and blue by dint of pinching you while walking with you, and will give you a couple of slaps; in short, she will give you in a single day the same provocations which one of our women could not do, without being thought too free, after a month's acquaintance. You are often no further advanced with them for all that. It all vanishes like a dream, and they are laughing at you ; at least that is what
96 Letters of a French Officer, 1777-'78.
has happened to me. I only perceived afterwards that it was nothing but curiosity and that she wanted to see how the French go about it when making love. As you know very well, I did not go down on my knees at the first interview. I rested for two days without saying anything, and she came back as before. I take my part. I am neither amorous nor jealous. I take what presents itself on my way. She lets herself out when she is in a good humor, and when she isn't, I withdraw. I talk English like a demon, and that is what I want. Perhaps the Devil will serve me, but not love. It is a chimerical being in a country still somewhat wild.
I come from the ball, my dear friend. The great news made me forget the leather breeches at my friend the Colonel's. Yesterday he played for us on the violin and gave us some Madeira wine. Just as we were going to dance the savage dances, — for it is nothing else, — a great man arrived, like a great postmaster among ourselves, whom our young lady admires infinitely, because he sings like our grenadiers, makes wretched verses and gives them to her. The great joy has redoubled : the ball was composed of the young woman, the Colonel, his wife and me and the great devil of a lover. If I had been amorous and jealous, what a fine field! But happily I have made a vow never to love a woman of this country, and certainly it won't be hard to keep.
We danced a till : two men and the young woman. The word till in English means jusque. I believe that this country dance, which is a sad piece of stupidity, is so called because they dance until the dancers or the violin says that they can't stand any more of it. The polite usage of the country is to take the lady's handkerchief to wipe oneself and return it to her. I should have thought this was a favor, but I have been treated so well that I am disabused : the usage is convenient, tho' rather dirty. After that we danced a jig, which reminds one a good deal of our Peri- gord dances. As I was the only Frenchman, they always
Letters of a French Officer, 1777-'78. 9T
prevented me from entering. At the third time I sat down and asked the lady if it was polite to turn the back when a man presented himself. They told me it was the custom and for a joke. I laughed then too, and presented myself once more, when I was received, but displaced at once. After that they wanted to dance a minuet, but the negro musician who was playing did not know it. So they had to let it pass. We returned to our dance of three, in which they never ceased to make the eights ; we were obliged to keep to that and the jig. I forgot to mention that the great lover wore boots. Tired of dancing thus, he took them off and danced in his barefeet. As he had breeches of grey leather, the heat of which he complained a great deal, I was scared to death lest they might share the fate of the boots ! Happily, however, we were spared that.
It must not in the least be imagined, my dear friend, that this country is at all sensible to English politeness, with the exception of some families that have been reared in Europe. All the rest feel rather like their neighbors the savages, and they have nothing in common with the English, except their language. Good-bye, dear friend. I have just had a glass with you. I had need of it. Though I am still fat- tening in this country, that does not prevent me from ex- periencing the crudest moments of ennui and of a kind of despair. Happily the memory of you and of several friends and the study of English, on which I receive compliments every day, give me a little distraction. Good-bye for to-day.
There is, my friend, in this country, a kind of folk, pretty well educated, who are their doctors in medicine and the- ology, and their judges. I have become acquainted here with one of these last. He had been for a long time in the service of Russia. There is no country in Europe which he has not been through. He has seen much and quite well. His conversation is not disagreeable, and I profit [by it] for my English. I have been charmed to find in his library Montesquieu's Spirit of Laws translated into the best English. VOL. xxxv. — 7
98 Letters of a French Officer, 1777-'78.
I am very glad to see that this nation, jealous of all that bears the name of French, has done justice enough to a work which we so highly esteem. He told me that in England every body who was intellectual had this book, and that they made a great fuss over it. He lends it to me sometimes. It is in two volumes of a superb edition ; but they have not the rest of this great man's works.
I am on the very best terms with the little wife, who has become for me a very good English teacher, and to whom I drew the other day so agreeable a picture of the pleasures of our women in France, and so different from all those which they have in this country, that the little wife, stirred by the truth and the pathos of my descriptive, and by cer- tain little compliments wherewith I seasoned this picture, was about to forget that she was of New England, perhaps to imagine that she had become a Frenchwoman, when some wretched bore came along to make her head Ameri- can, and remind her that she was so. At any rate, I am determined to pass the time with her as it comes. That gives me a good idea. I begin too to believe that one might succeed in giving some taste to these women, for they are flattered when you tell them that they have anything in common with ours ; and then the seventeen years where- with the little wife is afflicted make her believe that she would do very well to go and pass seventeen others in France, and so divide her time between America and France. She burns in her little shoes to be there. Oh ! there is something good and excellent about her. Something can surely be made of her. She is polished, or will become so, although one of her great words of friendship, which she has in common with nearly all the women of this country is: "Impudent dog!" which, in the best French possible, can only be rendered by Impudent chien. You see that the sweetness of the words is capable of giving a great idea of that of the individuals who pronounce them. But I must conform to the usages of the country.
Everything here is abominably dear. You are going to
Letters of a French Officer, 1777-'78. 99
believe me assuredly a very great lord, when I tell you that for myself and a little horse, it costs me the equivalent of sixteen livrea (francs), ten sous a day for breakfast, dinner and supper by course, with a cup of tea drowned in milk. See, my dear friend, whether the 3000 salary which had been promised us, and which is given us pretty much as they give us supper in the evening, can suffice us to live in this country. People are hoping, however, that this good news is going to raise the price of silver and bring groceries down ; but certainly, so long as the inhabitants of the towns make the countryman pay two louis for shoes and as much for the ugliest of hats (six livres in France), four louis for boots, eight louis an ell for cloth (the ell of this country being only three-quarters of ours), the countryman will make you pay ten livres for his butter, seven a pair for his fowls, and sixty sous a pound for meat. Every time that you sit at table in an inn, it costs six livres. There is no bargaining. If that does not stop, this country is ruined by itself before the English can take it. What causes this excessive in- crease is the number of Tories which this nation allows to live in it, and who undermine it by fomenting a spirit of revolt; aifecting to give bad news, hiding their goods and refusing to sell ; the innkeepers refuse to lodge you, per- suading the people that the current money, and nothing, are the same thing. If they don't take some pretty effica. cious measures to restore credit and consistency to the paper, this country is lost. But that's enough of politics. Our affairs are by no means wound up. I have yet no news at all : our folk must be quite uneasy at Boston.
EASTON, November 1, 1777.
The work done by a tired man is worth very little. When [illegible] if he will know how to employ the time that will follow the end of that work, he can only give it a distracted attention, capable of making very little impres- sion either on the memory or in the head. Now such is the
100 Letters of a French Officer, 1777-'78.
case in which I am; wandering around, unable to settle down to a work of too long duration ; the uneasiness which the delays of this Congress cause me: ....
It seems to me that I should be happy if, in the midst of the Blue Mountains near which I am, I could have a habi- tation where, ignored by the universe, living alone, seeking to ignore myself, I could live afar from every human being and every care ; but I am not even on the point of buying myself this habitation, and we consider ourselves very happy if we get back to France with a coat and a shirt on our backs. Such, nevertheless, is the situation of the French- men whose lot, at the moment of their departure, makes all their comrades envious. Define for me events, chance,
fortune Good-bye, I should not count upon any
letter from France in this country, even when they escape the vigilance of the English cruisers. The Congress has decided to keep all the correspondence of all the officers, after what happened to poor Du Coudray, at least we pre- sume so, for all the other Frenchmen have received theirs : we are the only ones who do not receive any ; however, we do not lack any friends, acquaintances and relatives.
EASTON, November 13.
You would not have any doubt of the nature of my occupation for some days past. I am obliged to console my big German hostess for the loss of a son whom she loved, and who was really very useful to her. The genuine grief of this woman has infinitely touched me. I have felt my- self obliged to employ all my rhetoric to console this poor woman. My arguments are short, for we hardly understand each other, but in default of words I make my actions speak : I stay with her, I try to distract her, and finally, yesterday evening I helped her to unwind a skein of thread : oh ! what a skein! It took us up to midnight, and she made me understand that when this same thread was cut in three, she counted on making two pairs of breeches therewith. I
Letters of a Frencli Officer, 1777-'7S. 101
could have believed it to be eternal, and I saw the end of it with the same pleasure as Theseus saw the end of the one he had tied to the gate of the labyrinth. Nothing comes to an end.
I see every day of the winter pass by so quickly, in spite of the ennui which prostrates me, even as the West wind which I see constantly by an unfortunate weather-vane that shows me the way to France, that I cannot help traveling by my wishes. We have had frost here for about ten days, and I can even tell you that the ice of this country is as slippery as that of France, for I bruised myself [illegible word here] the other day by falling on it. You see that the winter is beginning early.
I leave to-day for York, in spite of the cold that prevails ; but I do not want to wait longer to get to Boston, where all my comrades are, expecting that those who are at the Congress at York, are bearing them a reply from that Congress that does nothing. Yesterday I settled my ac- count with my big German woman, merely for board and lodging for a month, all but a day, that I have been here, 78 dollars, which in our money comes to 109 livres, 10 sous, which in my opinion is exorbitant for a man who has noth- ing in this country — even when we received our 3000 livres salary, considering that for us the expense of living for merely a year amounts to nearly 3000 livres. Add to that the expense of a horse, which we are obliged to have on account of the frequent journeys that they make us take, and I am persuaded that calculating our expenses at the end of the year, we shall find that we have spent 14,000 or 15,000 livres which the Congress of course will have paid ! That makes a great many pieces of paper and very little silver. I can easily give you a proof: if I stayed here and the Congress offered me 12,000 livres in paper, I neither would nor could accept, but if it offered me 1200 in silver, I should live here like a lord. Good-bye, to the yellow room ! If I had to mend the fire every time it went down ! You will understand !
102 Letters of a French Officer, 1777-' 78.
January 2, 1778.
This time, my dear friend, you must content yourself with my rough notes. I will tell you in a few words that I have left Easton, been to York, found our affairs wound up, and I refer you for the sequel to the great packet which our men are taking to France. As to me, dear friend, I am not quite happy that 2067 livres damages were suf- ficient to pay my debts. You are perhaps going to be astonished, but I am trying to make the best of this money in commerce, and to begin my fortune I have put aside the prejudices of my uniform : I speculate, and speculate well. If M. Clouet and M. de Devatre, from whom I ask a trifle, wish to send it to me, were both [trifles] only 100 louis or 2000 livres, I could, without much exertion, have nearly 80,000 livres at the end of the year. You see, my friend, that that is worth the trouble. During this time I am mak- ing the best of my friends here, and I shall wait patiently.
Journal of Ebenezer Elmer, 1777.
103
EXTRACTS FEOM THE JOURNAL OF SURGEON EB- ENEZER ELMER OF THE NEW JERSEY CONTI- NENTAL LINE, SEPTEMBER 11-19, 1777.
CONTRIBUTED BY JOHN NIXON BROOKS.
DR. EBENEZER ELMER, born in Cedarville, Cumberland County, New Jersey, was a grandson of Rev. Daniel Elmer, who came from Connecticut in 1727. After finishing his academical education, he was prepared for the practice of medicine by his eldest brother, Dr. Jonathan Elmer. When about to establish himself in his native town, the war for independence broke out, and he determined to enter the military service. On February 18, 1776, he was commis- sioned an Ensign in the Third New Jersey Infantry, Col.